


The Whisper || FullbusterFic » vonlane

by Fullbuster, vonlane



Category: Naruto
Genre: Adventures, M/M, Ninja, Romance, Shogun - Freeform, The whisper, Translation, Yaoi, vonlane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:33:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 44,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22361134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fullbuster/pseuds/Fullbuster, https://archiveofourown.org/users/vonlane/pseuds/vonlane
Summary: Izuna has been assassinated by the river shore, however, Madara is able to arrive at his final moments to hear him say his last whispers. Moved by the hate and the pain of his brother's death, he will claim justice for Izuna's assassination. Madara will see his opportunity to find the killer and demonstrate his pride in the big competition for the Senjus' feudal contract. Prepared to kill anyone who crosses his path, he never hoped to find love in a moment like that."The hunt for the assassin begins."
Relationships: Namikaze Minato/Uchiha Madara
Kudos: 19





	1. The Whisper

**Author's Note:**

> Original work in Spanish by Fullbuster. Translation into English by vonlane

Lightning struck across the cloudy sky. The roar could be heard throughout the entire clan. At this time of year, heavy showers were typical, but this one was different, Madara knew it. His brother had not yet returned from his training and that worried him. Izuna had always been responsible... but it's been a couple of months that he's been late from his training. Something was happening, but he wasn't sure of the motive that was keeping his brother late.

"Son... sit down and eat something," He heard his father say with that voice— hoarse but at the same time, with a certain touch of gentleness.

"My brother worries me. The storm is worsening."

"Don't worry too much. You know Izuna's held back sometimes."

"Yes, and lately he's been weird."

"He's probably preparing something for his students, don't worry. He'll come soon. Izuna hates these storms."

"I know."

Izuna was their father's right eye, Madara knew it. He was the little one of the family, the spoiled kid but everyone adored him. At his twenty years of age, Izuna still thought like a teenager. He liked his liberty and hated responsibilities, but to his luck, Madara was the firstborn— the one who would be heir to the Uchiha clan, the one who would have to carry the responsibilities of being a good clan leader over his shoulders.

Madara's worried pacing didn't let his parents eat in peace, but Tajima tried not to focus on his son and how he would look out the window every time he passed it. He could see how worried he was for his little brother. Tajima smiled and fixed his eyes on his beautiful wife who was taking a sip of her green tea.

"The Senju family is looking for a new alliance to add to their defense," He commented.

"The Senju family?" His wife whispered. "They're a noble family, one of the mayor feudal domains in these lands. It'd be very beneficial to have a pact with them."

"That's exactly what I thought. Izuna has decided to assist the trials."

Madara tensed upon hearing that. He knew very well about these trials. Every ninja in the region wanted that contract because it'd maintain their clan under the economy of a house with grand resources. It'd guarantee the subsistence of many if they managed to get that pact. To the Uchiha, it was a juicy deal and overall... it was something they had assimilated they could get. They were the best warriors on that side of the stream. Every other clan feared the Uchiha but even so... they also hated them. A feared clan, desired and hated at the same time for their strength, their pride, and bravery.

"I don't think Izuna is prepared for these trials," Madara remarked. "I should be the one going."

"You're not going to compete, Madara." His father said with seriousness.

"But father... you know he could die there and I'm more prepared than my brother."

"You will be the leader of this clan one day. I will not put you in danger nor put the clan at risk. Everyone would desire your death in order to destroy us. I will never put my firstborn at risk. Izuna will do well."

"The other clans have nothing against me, I can defeat everyone."

"Powerful clans are going, Madara. You should never underestimate our enemies. What's more, I heard the Namikaze wanted to convince the Senju to let them advise them on a political level."

That had surprised even his wife as it did Madara. It's been years since that clan had practically been extinct. Rumors of their weakness had scattered like dust over terrain. Nobody feared the Namikaze anymore. In their time, they had been important for their intelligence, for their ports and commerce, but now... nobody considered them any danger. They were just simple merchants who couldn't defend themselves.

"You're joking, right?" Madara asked with a faint smile in place. "A warrior clan like the Senju would never take advice from a clan incapable of demonstrating their strength. The Namikaze are not warriors."

"They were in their time, Madara."

"But their time is over. They're useless on a battlefield— they'd only get in the way. Who would listen to the advice of a clan that's incapable of getting through a single battle?"

"They're smart."

"I don't argue that, but intelligence isn't something that's going to save them from extinction. If they don't manage to demonstrate that they're still useful for something, then that clan is destined to slowly disappear."

"They'd be good advisers."

"A position they'll never reach. You know how this works, father." Madara reminded. "They want to see your worth before deciding to trust you. The Namikaze clan is not a clan of warriors; they'll never be able to show that they're worthy of such position. They'll give that position to the clan who wins this competition and we all know that clan will be the Uchiha."

"The Hatake are also participating, as are the Uzumaki— even the Hyuuga."

"Then forget about the idea of them giving the Namikaze the post." Madara smiled. "They'll never be able to defeat any of those families in combat. We all know the Namikaze can no longer defend themselves."

"Perhaps that's their problem, although rumors speak of a Namikaze boy, a genius."

"They're only rumors. Perhaps they've made that up to try and get others to stop plundering them."

"There will be a gathering tomorrow to elect the candidates who'll participate in the final battle to win the favor of the Senju family."

"Then Izuna should be resting instead of wandering around in this storm."

"Go look for him, then. We can't permit ourselves to get him sick before the big championship."

"Yes, father."

Madara stepped out from the warmth of his home to submerge himself in the intense rainfall, the cold breeze, and the lightning that faintly illuminated his way. He knew where his brother tended to train: very close to the river that separated the Uchiha domains from the Hatake and the Namikaze. Although really... they only had problems with the Hatake. Never before had he seen a Namikaze far away from their small village to come to this river and much less... to train.

Ten minutes running amongst the shrubs of the forest and finally, he managed to be close enough to hear the river flowing. He wasn't far. Izuna always came to this river to train. He liked the silence of the place hidden amongst the dense vegetation. Madara finally gave his last steps and pushed a branch out of the way to give view to the river. He was soaked and wanted to go back home as soon as possible, but nobody seemed to be here. This was very odd, especially when he could see a few kunai nailed against the targets that hung from a tree branch on the other side of the stream. His brother was always here.

He approached the river. He wanted to cross it so he could grab the kunai his brother had left on the target. The water was cold and the rain was beginning to shift to water-snow. Madara opened his hand, letting snowflakes fall over his black gloves.

At first, he thought the river wasn't so deep, but soon, he found it wasn't like that at all. The water came up to his knees in the zone where he was crossing, but he didn't care to get even wetter despite the chill that traveled his legs. He crossed to the other side and picked up the kunai with the Uchiha symbol etched on the handle. When he wanted to head back, he had barely placed one black boot in the water when he was paralyzed for a second.

The water on that shore wasn't as clear compared to the one on the other side. It had a red touch to it that he identified as blood. Immediately, he got on the defensive and looked on both sides of the river until he identified a dark lump a bit further up.

"Izuna!" Madara shouted, beginning to run towards the figure that appeared immobile along the shore.

He grabbed his brother from the armpits and pulled him to get half his body out of the cold water. He was shivering from the cold and knew he was suffering from hypothermia. Taking off the warm coat he had on, Madara placed it over his brother, trying to get him warm despite all his clothes being soaked.

"Come on, Izuna! Everything will be alright, hold on a while longer! I'm taking you home."

"Na..." He heard his brother pronounce with a certain glow in his eyes.

"Don't speak, alright? You'll be okay."

Madara tried to find the wound to be able to help him, but when he did, he knew it was the end of his brother's journey. Whoever had done it, had accurately punctured his right lung. Izuna was drowning in his own blood even though he was coughing some of it out.

"Mi..." His brother pronounced one last time before succumbing to his last breath.

"No, no, no! IZUNA!" His brother yelled, but he did so upon seeing he no longer responded, upon seeing those open eyes looking at him. He closed his eyes carefully, letting out the most painful tears in all his life.

With certain strength, he brought his little brother's face against his chest, feeling how his tears mixed with those snowflakes as they fell over Izuna's face. He leaned his forehead against his brother's, softly caressing his cold, pale cheek as if the closeness of his breath would breathe some life into him, but it wasn't like that.

That night, when he returned to the clan grounds with his brother's body in arms, everyone knew it would be a long night. They mourned him like they had never mourned in that clan and it was just that... seeing Tajima and his wife sunken in pain for the loss of their youngest son made the entire clan wish for the most absolute of revenge.

"I'll find whoever did this," Madara said as he observed how the flames of the ceremonial fire illuminated the dark night.

"Find them," Tajima said in all seriousness.

"What will we do for tomorrow?" Madara asked. "Izuna can no longer compete."

"We'll forget about the agreement with the Senju."

"Let me go, father," Madara asked in seriousness. "I'm convinced Izuna's assassin will be there."

"You think he was assassinated so he won't compete?"

"It's very possible. Many clans fear us. Perhaps they thought that if they killed him before the competition, they won't have to confront an Uchiha. Let me go in his place."

"It's too dangerous, you'll be clan leader some day!"

"I won't be a good leader if I'm always behind the front lines, father. To lead the clan, they should first know that I'm willing to do anything for them! They will all be under my protection. What example am I giving them if I'm not even able to do anything to avenge my own brother? They need to know that their future leader would do anything for them. He was my brother."

"You speak like a leader. When did you grow so much? Go then, but be careful. I don't want to lose another son."

"You won't," Madara assured.

Nobody in the Uchiha clan slept and neither did anyone in the Hatake clan upon seeing the dense smoke and the bright light that emanated from the bonfire; that could only mean something bad had happened. The following morning, all the clans began marching towards the imperial city where the Senju resided. The competition would begin soon and like always, they only looked for the best warriors— the ones capable of defending the great Senju dynasty and be the ones worthy of their grace and favors.

Madara observed everyone present. The other clans looked at him in disdain, some with admiration, and the majority with fear, but to Madara... there was only one thing in his mind: one out of everyone present was his brother's assassin and he would find them.

His eyes, dark like a most covered sky, fixed themselves upon a small boy no older than eighteen. He was just the right age to be able to participate but it wasn't that that had caught his attention, but his strange blue eyes, his even stranger hair— golden like the sun's rays.

"The Namikaze clan," His father whispered, mounted on the horse at his side. "You've never seen them, no?"

"No," Madara seriously responded. "They don't tend to come out of their village."

"Attractive and intelligent," His father said.

"And weak in the battlefield. That's how they've come to this disastrous situation."

"They've come to try and convince the Senju to become their political hand; the brain of their territory. They're intelligent; they'd handle finances well but..."

"The rest of the clans would not obey a clan they consider weak."

"Exactly," Tajima nodded.

Both Uchiha, followed by their ninja, arrived at their post and dismounted their horses to let their horses rest. The imperial palace was before them and leaders of distinct clans would shortly begin walking up the long stairs accompanied by their candidates for the competition of death.


	2. Chapter 2: An Authentic Leader

All the clans patiently waited for the moment in which the Senju family would make its appearance. Sneaky glares traveled from one to the other. For Madara, this was a precious moment in which he could investigate his rivals, all the competitors, and the rest of the clans to find his brother's assassin. However, his eyes once again shifted from the Hatakes towards the Namikazes on the other side of the grand plaza. It was a very scarce group.

"Very few Namikaze have arrived." Madara commented.

"They're not at their best moment as a clan, you know this already."

"That's like telling me there are barely any left."

Tajima shook his head, agreeing with him, but at the same time, indicating that he keep silence. It was never any convenient to gain more enemies, even if it were from the weakest clan present.

"They don't worry me, they've only come for the political post. They won't enter the competition. Who do you suspect?"

"The Hatake," Madara said. "they're the ones closest to the river, the Namikaze never wander around there; it's very far from their domain and they wouldn't dare cross paths with any ninja. They're scarce enough as it is. Izuna whispered something before dying and I've been thinking about it all night."

"It could be anyone. The Uzumaki live north of the river," Tajima said, signaling towards the redheads behind them. "and the Hyuuga, to the south."

"It could be anyone," Madara repeated. "but I'll investigate them all."

Tajima was about to speak once again when they heard the doors of the palace open. Atop the stairs, the royal guards walked out, giving sight to Butsuma Senju next to his two sons: Hashirama and Tobirama Senju. All the ninja looked at them instantly but Butsuma raised his hands, indicating the participants to come up so they could talk to him up close.

Tajima looked at his son, indicating that it was time and they abandoned the protection of their men to begin the hike up the stairs. The rest of the leaders gestured their participants to follow them and everyone began their ascent. Madara was struck odd upon seeing the leader of the Namikaze asking the youngest out of all of them to accompany him.

"Competitors, one step forward." Butsuma spoke.

Tajima once again looked at his first son, but Madara, with utmost confidence, unsheathed his Katana and threw it, stabbing it against the floor and making his participation clear. The Hyuuga was the first to follow the Uchiha, unsheathing a kunai and throwing it next to Madara's Katana, adding his participation as well. Everyone went along, throwing their weapons one after the other until finally arriving to the Namikaze at the end of the line.

"Namikaze," Butsuma whispered, "you come for the post in the council, is that not so?"

Everyone turned to the two Namikaze with an incredulous smile. Butsuma simply observed them cautiously without knowing too well what answer to give them.

"I don't see how having the Namikaze on the council is convenient," The leader of the Hyuuga dared comment behind his candidate: the son of his best advisor and the best ninja he had at the possible moment. "The Namikaze are no good in battle. How will they be able to command an army in case of war? No one would even fear them."

Madara instinctively looked towards the Namikaze's candidate. He seemed serious and looked at everyone else with a certain shyness, but looked nothing in comparison to his leader. Perhaps he wasn't a part of the main family; he could possibly just be some merchant's son, some adviser or something like that.

"If it's so important to show that someone is capable of using a kunai, then there's no other option," For the first time, they heard the young man speak. He took out a three-pointed kunai and threw it, nailing it next to the other weapons. "Minato Namikaze, I present myself to the competition."

"Are you joking?" Madara asked with a smug smile. "Come on, kid, get that kunai out of there. This isn't for you."

"I'm not dropping out. Everyone here underestimates us and we're tired of it. If I have to demonstrate our worth in this just so you can see that sometimes intelligence is better than strength, then... I'll do it. I'll see you at the site of the competition."

"Take that kunai back while you still can." The Hyuuga smiled.

"No kunai will be taken back," Butsuma spoke. "every participant is accepted. If the Namikaze wants to compete, he'll compete. You can all take your leave now and rest. The competition will begin tomorrow. Good luck to you all."

Madara looked at the Namikazes one last time. The leader appeared to be nervous but Minato was serious behind him. He was barely eighteen years old; too young to participate in this tournament of life or death. He watched as the others marched away and took advantage that his father was also walking down the steps to approach Minato.

"Why did you not choose a representative from another clan? Any could've helped you. Maybe a deal with the Uzumaki. They could've competed for you." Madara whispered towards the boy.

"Nobody will die in my battles," Minato said. "this is an issue of the Namikaze and we'll take care of it ourselves. This is my battle."

Madara continued walking behind the leader of his clan. He smiled a bit. He couldn't believe that this kid had a pair to be doing something like this. He hadn't expected anything of the like and much less... from a clan so weak that it couldn't even offer anything but it's brains.

"He's got guts." Tajima said, trying to smile although he couldn't due to the pain he still felt over the loss of his son.

"Yes, so it seems. Does he worry you?"

"He reminds me a bit of Izuna: a young man with aspirations, with a great life ahead of him, yet he could easily die tomorrow in a competition over the reputation of his clan; to save it from the desperation of it decaying. He's too young... men like him shouldn't be dragged into these things." Tajima whispered, getting Madara to look at Minato once again and realizing that his father was right. He was just a kid and surely... he could die in this competition.

"Shit," Madara said, and it's just that now that his father had voiced his thoughts, he saw Izuna in that young man. Even so, he didn't want to get dragged into anything else. He had decided to enter the competition and he would have to try to get out of it, dead or alive.

Upon finally reaching the end of the staircase, all the participants bid farewell to their leaders and their clans as they were now to head to another post. From that night on, the competition began. Madara, while gathering his weapons from his horse, observed a Minato being embraced by a man as blond as him— probably his father. The man cried and caressed a smiling Minato's cheeks as he appeared to look strong— all an act, Madara supposed. Nobody would bet on a Namikaze, surely they even thought he'd be the first to die. Not even his parents were convinced that he could win, or at least... come out of this alive. It must be hard starting something knowing well that nobody trusted in your abilities.

All the clans began their march, leaving their warriors in the plaza. Minato walked over to his horse— a rare palomino that was rarely ever seen in these lands. Madara, after observing how Minato got on his horse, then mounted on his raven-haired horse and began his march. There was still a three-day's journey towards the city where the test would begin. From the city, they would return towards the imperial city, confronting one another and the first to arrive would win the right to work for the feudal lord.

No ninja stopped their journey until nighttime. It was only then that they would finally show how tired they were from their hard day. Minato dismounted his horse and grabbing its reins, he walked it over to a water hole where the horse could drink. At that moment, Madara took the advantage to also take his horse and stand next to the blond who, in his personal opinion, was making the greatest mistake of his life upon participating in all of this.

Minato watched as Madara approached the waterhole to give his horse something to drink but maintained his silence despite his eyes wandering over to the arrogant raven's who, sometimes, observed him as well without saying a single word.

"You didn't have to present yourself," Madara finally said.

"I had to. This is our only chance to get out of the pit the clan's fallen into. They annihilate us with no reason. They believe us to be weak and unnecessary. We don't pose a problem to anyone. Our era is coming to an end, everything now only indicates that the rest of the clans will surpass us, especially yours. You are warriors by nature, we can't compete against your unique and special abilities; us Namikaze don't have anything like that."

"But you're all smart and fast."

"Not enough to go against the Byakugan or the Sharingan. We all know I'll die in this battle." He smiled with a certain sadness. Madara had wanted to say something, but Minato continued, interrupting the raven's words. "By the way... sorry about the boy from your clan. The rumors arrived all the way to the port."

"He was my brother," Madara said. "and I won't rest until I find his killer. Of that, you can be sure." He added, grabbing the reins of his horse once again and walking away.

"Minato?" Both men heard the soft voice of a woman.

Madara found it odd to hear such soft and sweet voice, but even more odd was seeing the blush on the cheeks of the redhead that spoke. She was a woman a few years older than Minato from the Uzumaki clan. There was no doubt that she was a part of the weird clan upon seeing her hair.

"Kushina?" Minato asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Madara had no doubt that these two knew each other. He couldn't even imagine a motive as to how, but there they were.

"Don't tell me you're participating?" Minato sounded worried.

"No, my brother is the one who's participating," The woman said with a faint smile. "But I wanted to accompany you to the city where you'll begin the test. I'm here to cheer for my brother as well as you."

The raven's face was of total surprise; he didn't understand anything of what was going on here, but upon seeing Minato tense, he noticed that there was something out of place here. He was just about to leave when the young woman took notice of him and approached him, making a slight bow in a gesture of greeting.

"Kushina Uzumaki," The young woman spoke, standing upright and smiling. "I'm Minato Namikaze's wife to be."

Those words had surprised Madara. He hadn't expected for the Uzumaki clan to be willing to accept a marriage to the Namikaze clan as to get them out of their economic struggle than their honor. No clan would ever propose a matrimony to the Namikaze and it was very odd.

"I had no news of that," Madara said, looking at a Minato, whose face strangely reflected sadness. Surely this was an arranged marriage. "and my deepest condolences. I didn't expect Minato to participate in this hunt if he was betrothed."

"He's taken us all by surprise," Kushina said. "but I'm convinced that he'll get out of this alive and well. We're hoping to get married, isn't that so?" The woman insisted as she grabbed a hold of the blond's arm.

"Of course," Minato said, forcing a smile. "Kushina... you should go look for your brother, surely he's worried about you."

"I'll go right now. It's a pleasure meeting an Uchiha. Good luck in the hunt."

Kushina walked away and Minato gave his back to the raven, grabbing his horse's reins to get his horse and walk it towards his assigned post. He had yet to assemble it.

"So, you're getting married?" Madara asked. "I didn't know the Uzumaki were willing to welcome you as a clan. Arranged marriage?"

"Do me a favor and stay out of my business," Minato said. "I'll have to get married if I manage to get out of this alive. Do whatever I do, it doesn't matter: my life has already been decided for me. Good luck in the hunt." Minato told him with a hard semblance as he marched away with his horse towards his assigned space.


	3. An assassin amongst us

It had been three days of intense marching and despite both Madara and Minato having crossed gazes a couple of times, none dared speak to the other. Madara couldn't get the last syllables his brother had pronounced, 'Na' and 'Mi', out of his head. He had thought about it almost a thousand times, thinking he might've referred to the Namikaze, but upon seeing Minato and thinking of those blonds... he knew that they were too weak to assassinate an Uchiha. Even so, he couldn't discard Minato from being a suspect. On the other hand, he had tried to look for a deeper meaning. He knew that 'Nami' was a wave, but the problem was that many clans could respond to that metaphor. It could be the Uzumaki, who lived near the Namikaze's ports; their piers and beaches were known for their intense waves. But it could also be a clan from the Village of Rain or even the poor city of waves. Everything was confusing. The more he thought of it, the less sense it all made and the more suspicious he grew of everyone. He couldn't even discard the feudal family of the Senju, who had some type of inverse trident on their family emblem— something related to the sea.

That night, before the beginning of the great challenge, was a cold and hard night. Every ninja looked at each other amongst everyone, knowing that only the first to arrive at the grand imperial city would be the one to have the feudal lord's favors at their disposal. Here, everyone would do anything to win, even kill other competitors so long as they're first. Minato observed them cautiously; he knew that he was the weakest amongst all of them. The clans had all improved, they had united with others and obtained specially powerful techniques, but the Namikaze had all fallen behind. Only their speed characterized them, only the wind would be on their side against abilities such as the Byakugan or the Sharingan— abilities that he would have to fight against at some point and he wasn't so sure he would come out victorious.

After a couple of hours sitting in front of the fire, Minato decided to go to sleep. Tomorrow would be a long day, it was also possible... that it would even be the day of his death. At times, that idea didn't let him get some sleep and other times, it seemed to be the best escape from his miserable life. The Namikaze clan had sunk and now its members only served as a coin of change to satisfy the morbid wishes of other ninjas. Minato knew very well how they only wanted them to show off in front of their friends how they could maintain sex with a blond. There were too many ninja who had sexual fantasies with them, but... only for that odd color of their hair.

Minato walked towards his tent which was situated on the other side of camp. Amongst the darkness, something caught Minato's attention; he immediately pulled a kunai out, able to throw and stop a few star shuriken that were coming towards his direction. Despite having blocked the first attack, a hand grabbed hold of his neck, pushing him against the trunk of a nearby tree. The dim light that the moon was able to reflect was enough for Minato to see the emblem of the Fuma family— one of the families that used the wind element just like the Namikaze family.

"I didn't think that the Namikaze were so stupid as to enter a battle they can't win." The boy from the Fuma family exclaimed.

"What do you want?" Minato asked, hardening his gaze.

"Isn't it obvious? To put you back in your place, Namikaze. We are the true users of the wind element, you, on the other hand... are the whores for the rest of us other ninja."

"Go to hell. I'll never be anyone's whore."

"No? Aren't they going to marry you to an Uzumaki? Why do you think they're doing that? It's not for the prestige of your clan, nor for how strong you are; it's only because they want to fuck you." Fuma smiled. "Admit it, your clan is no longer worth anything except for being our pastime in bed."

"Arashi Fuma," Minato smiled. "I know who you are. They call you _'The Storm'_ but you don't control the wind nor half of what I can." Minato bragged with a grand smile. "Let go of me now and I'll let you walk away."

"Very funny," Arashi smiled. "everyone knows that we'll become the new clan of wind. The Namikaze are good-for-nothing, although if you apologize, it's possible that I'll let you warm my bed while this challenge lasts. It'd be a fair agreement; I can defend you from other ninjas in exchange for something simple, don't you think?" He stated as he stuck his tongue out and with it, traversed a pissed Minato's neck.

"I've told you to let me go!" Minato shouted, passing his arm under Fuma's and hitting it upwards until breaking his elbow.

Arashi Fuma had no other choice but to let go of his grip and watch as Minato wiped his neck with the sleeve of his jacket. The pain of his arm was tearing him, but the shout he gave alarmed the rest of the competitors who were now immediately gathering around. Madara was one of the few who approached, observing how Minato tried to recover his labored breathing after being clearly almost asphyxiated and how Fuma shouted over his broken arm.

"What's happened here?" Madara asked, making way through those present.

"He broke my arm!" Arashi stated.

"Minato?" Madara asked, but upon seeing how hateful the blond looked and how he didn't answer from his breathing, he approached him and tilted his head to see the marks Arashi's hand had left around his neck. "It's too soon to start fights. Wait until tomorrow if you want to continue fighting." Madara simply said. "To our tents, all of us."

The ninja began leaving, even Fuma, after glaring hatefully at Minato, decided to leave as well and settle the score the following day during the challenge. Minato would be the first to fall and he knew it. Arashi's smile left it very clear to both Madara and Minato that he was going to go after that blond, surely moved by his sexual excitement.

"See you in the morning, Namikaze," He let out with a lustful tone. "We'll have fun, you and I."

"Let me help you," Madara whispered, offering a dark gloved hand but Minato, after looking at him, only slapped the hand away from him.

"I don't need your help," He said with an unpleasant tone.

Madara observed in silence how the Namikaze got up with difficulty and walked away towards his tent, picking up the kunai he had used to avoid Fuma's first attacks. And when he turned around, he met with Shisui and Obito behind him, both students of his brother, Izuna.

"What are you two doing here?" Madara questioned.

"We want to help," Shisui answered.

"Back to the clan," These were the only words from a serious Madara who only thought more of the cruel battle that was to come the following day than of anything else.

"But... Izuna was our master," Obito annoyingly retorted. "we want to claim vengeance for his assassination. Let us help find his assassin."

"I've said no. You're too young still."

"But we're the same age as the Namikaze!" Obito defended himself. "And he can participate in this challenge but we can't?"

"Seriously... leave, I'm already representing the Uchiha clan. I don't need two brats running around through the woods."

"What's happened to him?" Shisui asked, watching the Namikaze walk away.

"None of your concern."

"Have they attacked him before the test's begun?" Obito asked.

"The atmosphere is tense. They only wanted to warn him."

"Of what?" Obito asked once more.

"The Fuma only wanted to get him in bed. And now that you know, leave. We'll see if we manage to have a calm night." Madara let out, walking towards his tent without turning once to see the Namikaze.

Both Shisui and Obito followed Madara. They had both been Izuna's students and now, the two wanted vengeance for their crime. They were searching for a new professor and Madara seemed to be the best suited for it. Neither of the two wanted to leave from there without having convinced that serious ninja to help them or let them participate in the search for the assassin. The two students slept in Madara's tent without taking notice of the dark clouds that approached the camp.

The darkest of nights fell upon them that day. The clouds hid the little light that the moon gave and a shadow moved as swiftly as the winds throughout the camp without anyone taking notice of it. Everyone was sleeping profoundly when a terrorizing shout emitted deep from one of the participant's throats, waking and alerting the rest of the ninja.

They all hurried to change quickly and lit a few torches before exiting their tents. Everyone followed each other until they arrived at the center of the campgrounds where earlier, they had served bowls of miso soup for dinner.

"What in the...?" One of the ninja spoke, while you could hear how another in the back vomited and how others let out sounds of fear.

Madara lifted his torch to see Arashi Fuma tied from both feet, his body hanging upside down and forming a pool of blood on the ground. He covered his nose from the nauseating smell that radiated off the body and observed him much closer. They had skinned him.

"Fuck!" Shisui exclaimed upon seeing the abomination.

"Go back to the tent, the both of you!" Madara ordered Shisui and Obito.

"But..." Obito tried to comment.

"I've said, leave!"

Minato observed the incident from behind all the ruckus, unable to believe that the person that had threatened him just that same night was now dead in front of him. Madara had demanded they get him down and give him a proper burial before approaching a serious looking Minato.

"It wasn't me if that's what you're thinking."

"It's strange how you two had a dispute and now he appears dead."

"Well yes, it's strange, but like I've said, it wasn't me." Minato made it clear.

"Someone who's able to move with enough speed to cross the entire campgrounds, skin him to bits, and hang him there without leaving a trace? Sounds like the Namikaze style."

"We don't take part in these types of brutalities There are more people here who can control their speed well. The fact that us Namikaze are the fastest doesn't mean that the rest aren't capable to catch a speed, although slower than ours, that's sufficiently fast to act this way."

"That is true," Madara said.

Minato observed how Shisui and Obito looked at him in all seriousness. It was clear now that all doubts pointed to him. To the blond's luck, before anyone could tell him anything, an Uzumaki approached him, taking him away from the spot.

"Go back to your tent, Minato." Hiro Uzumaki, Kushina's brother, added.

For an instant, while Minato walked away from the place, giving one last look at the corpse they were taking down from the ropes, Madara looked over at the rest of the present ninjas. The Uzumaki... with that odd look he had when he approached Minato. The Hatake, observing the corpse with a certain smile just like a few other ninja from other clans were... it was clear that not everyone here liked Fuma. It was obvious that someone was eliminating potential rivals before commencing; this was an easier time since everyone had their guards down from this 'supposed truce' before the beginning of the challenge. Perhaps they had preferred to kill Fuma rather than the Namikaze simply for... power or prestige. To everyone, it was obvious that the Fuma had a better name than the actual Namikaze. Minato would be a relatively easy target, so they were taking out strong rivals so they could win. The assassin was there, in those campgrounds, amongst hundreds of ninjas from different clans and they were willing to win however way they could, even if they had to kill outside the competition.


	4. Challenge

Minato began walking back towards his tent realizing one thing: his legs were slightly trembling. He couldn't help but feel fear; the one who was there hanging, the one who had been brutally tortured could've been him and surely... at some moment he would be because the rest of the other ninjas wouldn't beat around the bush to win the competition. They would do anything to obtain that contract.

For a second, he raised his face towards the sky, letting the faint drops of rain fall over him. He needed to relax, calm the nerves that had been provoked by that sinister assassination... it was then that he felt Hiro Uzumaki's hand lower from his shoulders down to his back, almost as if trying to calm him. At first, he gave it no importance, until the man's hand was about to reach his ass; at that moment, Minato turned around quickly, stopping Hiro's hand with a challenging glare.

"What are you doing?" Minato asked in a whisper.

Minato thought that nobody had seen that, but he was wrong. Madara, who had been looking around every single millimeter of each corner of the camp with his Sharingan, had caught the blond's sudden move and had instantly taken an interest as he focused on Hiro's smile.

"Don't get so alarmed, Minato, I was just trying to calm you a bit."

"Don't ever put your hands on me again," Minato clarified. "Respect the engagement I have with your sister."

"You could marry whoever you want for all I care," Hiro said with a grin. "That doesn't mean you can't have lovers on the side and I'd be willing to be a very good one. I'd give you all the pleasure you desire."

"I'm no one's lover nor do I need one, you hear me? Keep these words very well engraved in your head: I'm going to be your brother-in-law, your sister's husband, and only with her will I lay in bed with. Nobody else will have me." He said dryly, letting go of a smiling Hiro's hand.

"We'll soon see about that," Hiro said, observing how Minato walked away towards his tent, notably bothered.

Very few times did Minato get angry. Everyone had always said that he was a smart and patient guy; very diplomatic, but this situation was beyond him. He was tired of everyone insinuating themselves onto him, that they treat him not like a ninja, but as some trash whom they could take to bed. It was very clear that the Namikaze clan had fallen in its darkest days— nobody ever took them seriously anymore, not even the elders had hope. They sold their youngest to the highest bidder. The rest of the clans no longer sought alliances with them— they weren't considered strong, they were only the morb for the most powerful clans to take blond boys from and have them in their beds.

A terrible sound came to a hidden Madara's ears from behind the tree Minato had punched with his fist. He thought the blond had discovered him, but immediately realized it wasn't so; the boy hadn't noticed his presence. If he had... he wouldn't be shedding the bitter tears that now fell from his eyes, letting a silent whimper escape from his lips.

Madara observed with his Sharingan how his entire body trembled, surely imprisoned from all the frustration and fear he felt; perhaps even due to the anger he had contained. Upon hearing a sob from the boy whose legs failed him and brought him down on the ground in front of a tree, Madara had felt tempted to go out and help him, but a neigh made him contain himself.

Minato's horse, tied to one of the posts near his tent, observed him from a distance. That horse of strange hair, so golden that it almost compared to the blond of that mysterious and desired Namikaze.

To Madara's surprise, the horse bit at the reins with mastery, loosening the knot and walking slowly towards its owner. Once at Minato's back, it moved its head over the man's shoulder a few times until Minato's bloodied hand moved towards the animal's head, softly caressing him from where he still laid.

"Sorry, Yokaze," Minato hurried to say, cleaning his tears with his other hand and smiling as best as he could. "I'm better now. Sorry to have worried you. Let's go back to the tent, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow and we need to rest."

To Madara, there was no doubt. Minato Namikaze, the boy who seemed to have great strength, was just a young adolescent who had the same fear of dying like the others. He had gotten himself into this— almost forcibly — just to demonstrate that his clan served a purpose, however, that didn't excuse him from being afraid.

"Damn it," Madara said to himself upon realizing that he felt pity for the boy. Now he wouldn't be able to focus on the battle without wondering if that boy could take care of himself.

"Since when are you interested in the Namikaze?" Madara heard Obito ask with a faint smile.

"I'm not, he just worries me."

"Why? He's not of our clan; he's nothing special. Why would we care about what happens to him?"

"I won't deny that, sometimes... I come to think that he could be Izuna's assassin, but other times... I don't know..."

"That boy, an assassin?" Obito laughed. "He's like a scaredy cat! Look at him well. He's a Namikaze, a clan that isn't precisely considered to be strong. You think he alone could have killed an Uchiha? And skin that man from the Fuma clan? He could barely stand his own when he confronted him yesterday, he was suffocating!"

"That's what intrigues me more. Sometimes he looks like a determined boy— a warrior, an authentic ninja capable of anything and other times like now... he seems like a small, scared child, an innocent one who shouldn't be here, one who shouldn't be obligated to marry just to satisfy the wishes of a clan who's slowly dying."

"He's marrying?" Obito asked, puzzled.

"With an Uzumaki, yes," Madara added somewhat intrigued.

"I can't imagine him marrying so young or in this case... being forced to. Poor guy."

"It's a matter of his clan, Obito. We can't do anything. Let's just focus on finding the killer."

"I've been investigating a few and I have a couple of possible suspects."

"Great, let's go back to the tent and look things over."

Whatever was left of the night, Minato couldn't close his eyes. When the first rays of the sun crossed the skies, he got up, picking his weapons and preparing himself for the beginning of the biggest challenges he's ever confronted. He grabbed the reigns of his horse and pulled on them so that the horse would follow him towards the exit post. To his surprise, once he got on his horse and placed himself on the exit line, he observed as Madara placed himself by his side and whisper:

"Get away from the first position. They'll attack the first one once we all go out. Stay behind and hurry to enter the forest and hide." He commented.

"Why are you helping me?" Minato whispered.

"Who knows..." Were Madara's final words before hearing the whistle that initiated the great race.

All the participants nudged their horses to head out quickly, but 'Yokaze' rose to two legs as to avoid heading out with them. Minato contemplated Madara's horse. It didn't even seem to want to run to catch up with the rest. That horse, black as night, was staying behind and little by little, it moved towards the safety of the trees. Seeing himself alone in the exit line, Minato too, nudged his horse, getting him to head out less alarmed after the uproar that had been made by the rest and followed Madara's horse, looking— just like him— for the safety of the woods.

Minato softly nudged his horse to accelerate its pace. They were the last of them and Madara was taking distance at moments. Everybody was following in a straight line, but Minato, following the Uchiha, wandered off slightly to the right as to move away from the rest of the competitors. He was doing so when a rider fell to the ground just in front of Minato.

The ground was filling up with lifeless bodies of the first participants trying to get ahead, knocking over their followers. Madara had been right. This had all become a bloodbath where riders and ninjas all miserably fell to the ground lifeless. Some horses managed to get up and return or try to get away from all the bloodshed, but Minato continued forwards, determined as his horse jumped over any ninja that had fallen in front of him and by doing so, following Madara. He had been galloping over a body when a few shuriken grazed his face, creating a scratch on his cheek but crashing into a kunai that headed towards his direction.

This had surprised him, but as he looked towards the place from where the stars came, he found Madara, who had obligated his horse to slow its pace as to rise to its height. Minato didn't understand why he was helping him but as his horse finished its jump, he wanted to stop as to solve his doubts.

"Keep going!" Madara shouted at him, forcing him to continue. "Don't stop until you've reached the woods!"

Minato's face hardened and his determined look intensified, nudging his loyal horse once more to continue the race in search of the vegetation that would provide protection for some time. Madara placed himself at Minato's side once more and once they were about to reach the entrance of the forest, he let Minato in first, placing himself behind as a possible target to anyone and thus avoiding anyone to injure the blond.

Minato turned around to look, seeing how Madara had no intention of stopping, but he had no idea where he should go. He was a bit disoriented. He could see the sun amongst the trees and could deduce his orientation, so he turned towards the north but on the first esplanade, Madara once again placed himself by his side without stopping.

"You think they're following us?" Minato asked.

"No. No one will be after us. The fight is on the front lines. So long as you stay behind, you should be safe."

"We can't win from behind."

"Let them kill each other amongst themselves. That'll take opponents out of the way. Then we'll see how we can advance with those who remain on foot. The race is a long one, Minato, it'll take us three to six days to cross all this territory to the Imperial city. Let them tire themselves out. This is not a race about who's quickest, but one of resistance. We'll stop for a bit up ahead. That exit tires out any horse and they'll need to drink and rest."

"Alright," Minato said, somewhat flushed upon seeing how good a horseman and ninja Madara was. He had everything thought out but even so, Minato didn't know why he was helping him.

At moments, he thought Madara was helping him because he was looking for something. It was possible that he was looking for what the others looked for: a night of sex with him. Everyone looked at him as if he were a kid and it was true: he was only eighteen years old— just the right age to be able to participate. This was his first competition and Madara, surely, had participated in many others. People always talked wonders about the Uchiha, about how strong they were, the reputation that preceded them. All contrary to the Namikaze.

Madara began stopping his horse slowly, taking him from a gallop to a gentle trot so that he could maintain more time. Minato imitated him, staying at his side. For some reason, he felt safe at Madara's side but he also couldn't understand how he could feel safe with a ninja that could kill him at any given moment. On the other hand, Madara saw something strange in that boy. He shouldn't have helped him, but there he was, taking him to a safe zone. Perhaps it had been upon hearing his horse's name last night, maybe the coincidence that both had thought of something similar for their horses, he wasn't sure. Perhaps he found him too similar to his little brother, the one he had recently lost. The question was... he was helping him and he himself didn't understand why.


	5. Remorse

The sun began rising more each time across the sky. The clouds from the night before had passed, leaving way for a beautiful day— a day in which various participants had already fallen in this atrocious game that the feudal lord had prepared.

A black horse calmly drank water, feeling the strong hand of his owner touching its neck as he looked around in all directions in case he needed to escape at any moment. Minato couldn't look away from the man that had saved him from the first conflict in this race of resistance that was taking place. Sitting on the small rocks, he let his thirsty horse drink before continuing on their march.

"How many enemies do you think are left out there?" Minato asked.

"Many." Was Madara's response. "Soon, the hunts will start; real potential ninja will come out. Maybe it'll be easier for you to survive."

"Do you think it'll be much easier now?"

"No," Madara said. "But it's possible that it'll give you a bit of an advantage. The beginning is much harder; we're all together upon heading out and it's not easy taking out enemies. From this point on, we're all spread out. Maybe a fight, one against one, could benefit you instead of thinking of all those who could attack you in a group. The only problem is... is that as we begin getting closer to the goal, there'll only be stronger, smarter enemies left that've managed to stay alive."

A whistle hastily traversed the air, but when Madara turned around to see what was going on, he only managed to see Minato in front of him stopping a kunai mere centimeters from his face. A few drops fell from the blond's palm but in his eyes, he could see determination and rage. He had stopped the kunai despite knowing he'd be injured, he had stopped it, saving Madara, who had dropped his guard for only a few seconds.

At that moment, Madara understood one thing: this boy was not just any boy, he was special. The Namikaze could still have hope in him; he was fast and had great instinct.

The sound of a few droplets of blood falling over one of the humid rocks by the river made Madara react. With both hands, he weaved a few seals while maintaining his eyes closed, concentrating on his ability. Upon opening them, the Sharingan appeared on them— those red eyes like blood itself, the eyes of a true demon thirsty for blood. However, he didn't have time to act when Minato had already disappeared in a faint cloud of smoke, one he had left when he had raised his speed. Madara smiled.

"There's no remedy for this boy," He smiled, softly caressing his horse's neck, who neighed before looking towards the place where the blond should've gone. "He's amongst the trees, I feel his chakra." Madara confirmed, observing how both horses remained vigilant towards the trees and moved their ears trying to hear something.

A soft breeze began blowing, tussling Madara's black strands. It was odd at this time of year for the wind to blow like this so sudden, but upon thinking a bit about the Namikaze clan, he knew immediately that it was probably related to that boy that had thrown himself at the attack. The Namikaze were known to have control over the wind. In that breeze, Madara thought that it'd be nice to have been able to live next to it in a life full of tranquility, but inevitably, he had been raised in a warrior clan where tranquility was scarce.

The wind blew in his face like a whirlwind that took everything in its path. Madara had no choice but to raise his arm, covering his eyes from that blizzard that brought dust, twigs, and leaves. To his astonishment, something much bigger and heavier fell practically at his side— a ninja from the Village hidden in the Water— but it wasn't that what Madara fixed his attention on, but on the bandana with the symbol of a wave.

"Well look here, a ninja from the Rain." Madara said, grabbing the ninja by his jacket as said ninja tried to recover from the punch he had received from Minato. "Tell me... Do you know the Uchiha?" Madara asked, determined to discover if he or his clan had something to do with the murder of his brother.

The ninja only laughed, but the smile was erased off his face upon seeing Minato Namikaze's furious eyes walking towards him. Not even Madara could have ever imagined that a pair of beautiful and innocent blue eyes could harbor so much fury in their interior, but really, the more that boy walked out from the trees towards the esplanade where Madara was with the ninja, the more he realized that that boy was hiding something— a power far beyond than anyone could imagine. He was not one of the most weakest Namikaze... Minato was strong in his own way.

"Get away from me!" The ninja shouted, scared upon seeing Minato. "Get him away!" He repeated towards Madara.

"Minato, stop there."

"He... he's tried to kill us. Why should I stop now?" He angrily asked. Madara watched the blood drops slide down from his hand towards the ground. He had stopped that kunai to save him and although surely his hand should hurt, he was there confronting his enemies.

Those words had made Madara think about everything that boy had probably had to go through in his life. He was a Namikaze... a ninja born in one of the worst clan he could've been born into in this generation. Nobody took him seriously, not even his own people. He had learned to defend himself when everyone messed with him. This world was cruel with the weak and Madara understood that. Perhaps this boy was once sweet and innocent, but he had to learn to defend himself from everything that tried to overstep their boundaries with him. Now, to him, there was only one thing clear... he differentiated between allies and enemies, but he knew, that even if it cost him, that he could not be indulgent with his enemies because they would take him as weak. In this world... there was no place for the weak.

"I'll take care of him, Minato." Madara made it clear, surprising Minato. "Don't worry, he won't get near you."

"I..." Minato whispered with a strange glow in his eyes, almost as if he were to cry. "Sorry," He said, grabbing the reigns of his horse and walking away.

Minato didn't stop walking until he arrived at a small creek. He couldn't even recognize his own self. This challenge was changing him, changing him for the worst and he didn't want to. He let go of the lead, letting his horse approach the creek to drink while he sat on one of the rocks.

He remembered the past... it wasn't even the past... it had been only but a few weeks before finding himself here. He was a good boy, sweet, caring, and attentive to everyone... When had he changed so much? Perhaps ever since the clan of the Rain tried to kidnap him. It was possible that he had changed when they assassinated the Uchiha, or it could be... when they obligated him to accept the matrimony to someone he didn't love despite the appreciation he had for her. He was tired of everyone wanting to sleep with him, of taking him for a weakling. He always had to be on the defensive, demonstrating that they couldn't do whatever they wanted with him, but that was tiring him. He just simply... wanted to be the boy from before. That cheerful boy— full of happiness and hope— now he only tried to survive. He was becoming someone he didn't want to be.

He couldn't help to feel rage through his gut— that hate and the thirst for vengeance for everything he had suffered for his clan thanks to the rest of the clans. How was he going to free himself from all those confusing emotions? He was becoming like the rest of the clans— one more tool for killing, a weapon for the feudal lords to use for maintaining themselves safe without caring if those ninja died or not. He cried. He cried like he had never done so before, as if they hadn't permitted him to do so in weeks.

Suddenly his horse lifted its head, immediately leaving its drink to look at Minato's back. Minato could hear the sound of a few steps, but he didn't turn, realizing immediately that it was Madara. He came alone, something that made him think of only two things: either he had tied the ninja up in a safe place or he had killed him.

"Let me see your hand," He heard at his back. "I have to heal it."

"Why do you worry about me?" Minato asked, still crying. "Nobody ever does that."

"I know what you feel."

"You can't know that. Your clan is strong, nobody dares to mess with you. Nobody tries to use force against you to make you do things you don't want to do."

Madara only knew a part of that story that Minato denied to tell, surely because it was hard to do so. He knew that the clan of Rain had tried to kidnap a Namikaze. He knew they had assassinated and violated his mother and it was precisely Izuna who told him this because it was his brother that intercepted the ninja of the Rain when they were taking Minato. He understood Minato's rage and his hate towards that clan, he too, felt it. Izuna had destroyed their plans; they were from the Village of Rain and they wore a wave on their bandanas. It was possible that they were his brother's assassins, perhaps claiming vengeance because Izuna had gotten in between and killed the ninja that had tried to kidnap that boy.

"It's not your fault," Madara said, squatting down in front of him and letting the little water from the creek wet his dark boots. He moved his hand towards Minato's face and parted his hair softly, watching those bitter tears fall from his cheeks. "It's not your fault," He said once more. "It's logical that you feel hate but you're not like them. You haven't killed them despite having a chance to do so. You're not a bad person, Minato."

"It's my fault," He whispered. "Everything is my fault. I couldn't protect my mother, I couldn't protect myself or..." He suddenly quieted down, torn from the pain. Madara didn't want to dig deeper into the matter.

"Minato... give me your hand, please. We have to heal this wound. The ninja of the Rain use poison. I have to get it out."

Minato moved his shaky hand towards Madara's and placed it softly over it despite being unable to stop crying. He felt like a heavy burden, especially for the Uchihas. The other boy had already saved him and now... he was here with another Uchiha, being saved once again by the same clan.

"I'm sorry," Minato sobbed. "I feel I am a burden."

"You're no burden for me," Madara claimed. "But calm down now and let me heal you. There's still much competition ahead and I'm gonna need you to recover."

"I-Izuna," Minato whispered, once more surprising Madara.

"He was my brother," Madara confirmed. "Izuna... the boy they assassinated on the river shore, he was my little brother."

"It was my fault," Minato cried once more. "He's dead because of me."

"We don't know that." Madara remarked, trying to take the guilt away from the boy. "He protected you, I know he did it because he wanted to, because he hated wrongdoings. Those ninja should have never stepped foot on Uchiha land and much less kidnap someone from another clan. My brother did what was right, anyone in his place would have done the same. He took down those ninja because it was his obligation. You're not guilty of anything."

"Alright," Minato said, trying to silence his crying while Madara tore a part of his sleeve from his kimono to wrap around the boy's hand once he was done extracting the poison.


	6. Separating

Madara's skilled hands calmly wrapped around Minato's, taking with them the black strip of cloth he had ripped from the sleeve of his jacket. A faint groan from Minato came to his ears, but he didn't stop wrapping the wound that would soon stop bleeding. The more time he spent with that blond, the more Madara realized he was letting his guard down; he was an enemy, they were competing against each other and, however, he couldn't stop helping him without understanding the reason why.

Upon raising his gaze towards that face of innocent looks and traits, he realized. He was attracted to him. The Namikaze had something to them that managed to attract the rest of the ninjas but Madara never thought he'd stoop like the rest. He wouldn't fall so low as to threaten him or try to take him by force; that boy only needed a bit of patience and tenderness in his life— something almost impossible to find in this cruel world of fights and ninja assassinations.

For an instant, their gazes met, stopping time around them. The breeze continued flowing, moving the weak branches of the tree canopies and letting fall green leaves over them but to them, it didn't matter; they hadn't even noticed it. One had lost themselves in the other's eyes— a blue so profound drowning in that darkness that was a characteristic of the Uchiha. Not until Minato felt a blush on his cheeks did he break apart from that tense ambient that both had made appear.

"I... we have to move." Minato said as he got up, slipping on one of the wet rocks near the river and being grabbed by Madara before falling to the water.

"Be careful, these rocks are very slippery."

"Sorry. I'm a bit clumsy." Minato smiled.

This didn't go unnoticed by the Uchiha. He had seen Minato's speed first hand. He had seen his kindness when Minato had stopped that attack back then, his appreciation for being saved at the beginning of the race. He wasn't clumsy, he was nervous and he had gotten nervous with that profound look they had both shared.

Madara placed a boot on one of the rocks to get out of the small creek when suddenly, he felt something... his partner had become immobile and then, he realized that the breeze had stopped flowing, the trees no longer moved, and the song of the birds had disappeared. Night was falling and visibility was thinning. He felt Minato's hand hitting him hard against his chest, pushing him back— throwing him into the river— while the blond fled to the opposite side as a kunai with an explosive tag crossed through the empty space Minato had left between them and dug itself on a tree trunk behind them and exploding instantly.

"Minato!" Madara shouted, realizing that the explosion could've reached him.

Sitting in the creek, Madara tried to get up despite feeling soaked and his chest hurting from where Minato had pushed. A gesture of pain was on his face, surely because Minato had used chakra in his palm to push him farther away from the explosion.

"Fuck," He complained and almost cursed himself for having let his guard down at that moment. Looking out for Minato was costing him dearly. This was the second time that that boy had taken notice of danger before him and had protected him. "Sharingan." He whispered, activating the natural-born ability of his clan.

He could see Minato's chakra just between the fire. It was most probable that he was surrounded upon having thrown himself at the opposite direction. He seemed to be looking for something— surely his weapons— but he wouldn't find them; Madara had already seen them on the floor before him. They had fallen off of him when he had roughly pushed him.

Madara released a few seals and lifted a part of the earth near him to throw it against the fire, taking out a part of it so that Minato could walk out in his direction. He didn't have to tell him anything as he then saw him walking towards him, coughing from the smoke he had inhaled.

"I've got you," Madara said to him, grabbing him before he fell to the floor.

"Sorry."

"Go get your horse and leave," Madara advised.

"But... and you?"

"I'll catch up to you when I take care of him."

"I can help you."

"No, you're not in condition and you'll only distract me. Go on, leave."

Minato tightly closed his eyes, biting his lip until making it bleed. He hated these moments. He hated that the Uchiha always told him to leave and that they'd take care of things. First Izuna and now his brother. Why did they always take him out of battle? He couldn't understand why he was a burden to everyone. He had trained like the rest but nobody wanted him near when the only thing he wanted to do was help.

"What are you waiting for? I said leave!" Madara shouted, pissed as he took out his katana and with it, deflecting the four enemy kunais that headed towards them. He kneeled for a second, grabbing Minato's kunais from the floor and throwing them towards him. "Leave!"

Minato got off the floor and ran towards his horse, mounting it in one jump. He indicated the animal with the reigns to turn around and run. 'Yokaze' didn't make him beg; once he felt Minato's faint kick, the horse galloped in the opposite direction of battle despite knowing his owner was once again shedding bitter tears. It had been the second time he had seen it.

He couldn't help but open his eyes when a fine branch hit against his cheek, creating a superficial cut. With the back of his hand, Minato touched his cheek, watching how a bit of blood was left over between his skin and the improvised bandage Madara had put on him. He could barely differentiate the blood from the black fabric, but he observed it, realizing he had left behind the one person that was important to him, the one he had helped, but he couldn't go back; he didn't want to be a burden to the Uchiha.

He continued riding forwards, convincing himself of not looking back. Night was falling each time more rapidly until finally, upon hearing his horse's loud breathing, he ordered it to stop, realizing how deep into the forest they had entered.

For a few seconds, Minato looked around the darkness, at the vegetation that surrounded them and tried to calm down to think of something. Many ninja would take advantage of the night to hunt each other. He should hide and let the bloody night pass. He got off his horse and grabbing the reigns, he walked in the most silent way he could, taking into account that he had a horse following his steps.

He crossed part of the forest and after walking for twenty minutes more, he arrived at what would seem to be the ruins of an ancient temple. He clicked his tongue in sign of disgust, noting the cold taking over his bones. He couldn't start a fire in these conditions; with how dark it was, the fire would call attention to every hunter in the zone and the ruins weren't a safe place, either.

That place was the only place capable of protecting him from the wind and that at least, despite being ruins, had a covered space. However... for that same reason, it made it vulnerable. The other ninja knew they wanted to take refuge there. It'd be the first place they'd look at. He tried to think for a second on what Izuna or Madara himself would do. The answer was clear: a trap.

"Stay here," He signaled his horse with a smile while he slowly entered the uncovered plains to head towards the ruins of the temple.

He swallowed hard as he got near. He'd be lying at that moment if he said he wasn't scared. He was scared, but there was no other choice but to go. If he managed to place traps there, it'd be possible that he could still survive in some way in any case they ambush him.

To his luck, there seemed to be no one. Either they hadn't arrived, or the competitors who were ahead had decided to continue without stopping, not even to stop those who were left behind.

That night, as Minato prepared the traps, he couldn't stop thinking of Madara. He felt cold and many times, he had to blow his warm breath over his frozen hands to tie the knots on the rope. His entire body hurt, but his hands barely had any sensibility. The cold was tearing him and the guilt for having left the Uchiha behind and completely alone wouldn't let him sleep.

"Damn," Minato complained when the rope slid from his cold, weak fingers— letting go of the log that he had been raising for the trap. Upon looking at his hand, he observed how the wound that hours before, Madara had healed, started bleeding.

He looked to the other side of the esplanade. His horse was still there, hiding amongst the vegetation but his gold hair was plainly visible. He sighed once more and finished placing the trap before going to his horse. That night, the two spent the entire night sheltered behind the flimsy walls of the ruins, covered with the quilt from underneath the saddle. Upon seeing his horse close his eyes, Minato smiled.

He could still recall the day where he chose that horse. A shipment of them had arrived at the ports. They had come in ships from far away lands to be sold, but this one in particular, with barely a year in age when he first saw him, was stubborn and nobody wanted it due to its strange color. That horse was practically sentenced to become meat in some butcher shop in town. He didn't even know how he managed to convince his father to buy it for him, especially since they barely had any money. Perhaps it was luck that this horse was nothing special to the others and that they had lowered the price on it as to get rid of it. Ever since that day, the two had been inseparable.

"That day, a great wind blew at night." Minato whispered, touching the horse's hair. "You'll always be my _'wind of the night'_ , the one who keeps me alert, the one who's intuition never fails."

Caressing and entering in warmth thanks to leaning against 'Yokaze', Minato managed to get some sleep for a few hours before morning. When the first rays of the sun fell upon his face, he refused to open his eyes. He needed to rest; he was exhausted. However, upon feeling how 'Yokaze' abruptly moved, he opened his eyes without thinking twice. Those tense ears of his horse could only indicate one thing: he had heard something or someone. That horse had a major instinct for these types of noises.

His hand instinctively moved to the bag of kunais he had tied on the back of his pants and quickly threw one towards his right, listening to how it was nailed into the far stone wall. His horse was still tense, so much so, that it even got up— something that even Minato imitated despite the weak strength he had at the moment to do so.

He observed everything of his surroundings until he heard the whistle of something crossing the air. With the end of his kunai's hilt, he picked up the one that was coming towards him, thrusting the point of the one that had been thrown into the circular opening at the end of his. He then looked at the wall where he had previously thrown his kunai to discover that, certainly, it was no longer there.

"You're fast to detect enemy presence," The Uzumaki confirmed as he got out from his hiding spot. "But you've been slow to get away from the Uchiha. Well... at least you've done it now."

"It was an ambush to get us apart," Minato commented.

"Not exactly. I saw some stupid ninja following. I just had to wait for the right moment where Madara wanted to be alone in a fight and then, I left that ninja with him and I followed you. At this rate, he should be dead by now." The Uzumaki smiled. "You'd have to be an idiot to mess with an Uchiha so lightly. Fuck, Minato... I thought you'd never separate from him and we wouldn't enjoy some time alone for ourselves." He smiled lustfully.


	7. Hiro Uzumaki

A chilling wind blew, tussling the front strands of hair that fell on either side of Minato's face. That golden hair had captured Hiro Uzumaki's attention. He still couldn't believe that his little sister had gotten her way and had managed to convince both clans to take that boy in marriage. Any ninja would've paid to have some blond from the Namikaze clan in their bed, but he never would've expected to marry them— they were a dishonor that only served to keep the beds of the best ninjas warm, or so Hiro thought. He didn't even care if Minato were to marry his sister so long as he could tell everyone he had laid with a Namikaze to satisfy his personal morbid fantasy. He'd be the envy of everyone.

Minato, upon seeing the lustful smile, moved his frozen hand towards the bag of kunai on his right leg, focusing and enduring the pain of having to open and close those fingers that had gone through such a cold night. He didn't feel too good— his hands weren't responding due to the cold they were suffering and surely, sooner or later, his body would enter in hypothermia. The chilly wind that was blowing wasn't helping, either, and telling from the clouds that lay ahead, it was going to snow soon.

With great suffering, he closed his fingers around the hilt of his kunai and waited, calmly observing the eyes of the red-haired man that would soon attack. He waited for some seals and knew he should react the same, but he didn't know up to what point his fingers would respond to form the seals he needed.

"We could do this the easy way, Minato," Hiro smirked. "You just have to let yourself go, you'll enjoy yourself with me."

"It'll never be easy," Minato made it clear.

"Take a good look at yourself, boy... your hands are frozen; you can barely move them. Let go of that kunai before you hurt yourself."

Replying would've been a waste of time. Minato simply tightened his grip on the kunai and patiently waited. Madara was not here to help him but even so, he was tired of always being treated as someone weak, of being underestimated. He was the genius of the Namikaze and while his clan could be considered weak, he would make sure of proving them wrong. The Namikaze clan would rise from its ashes because it was not willing to let itself be insulted by anyone.

Instantly, Minato's eyes detected Hiro's first sudden hand moves; he was creating his first seals. Seeing the elements, Minato threw the sharp kunai on the ground in front of him and began forming his seals with difficulty but as fast as he could. The Uzumaki were expert in sealing techniques, but he wasn't too far behind.

Hiro's paralysis technique was soon to take effect under Minato's feet when suddenly, Minato disappeared in a cloud of dust, leaving behind a log in which he had released as a replacement. Hiro smirked upon feeling Minato's chakra leaving from there, but it wouldn't be easy for him to escape. He followed him to the forest and practically had him in sight when he wanted to release his next seals.

"You won't escape, Minato." Hiro smiled, but when the seal was formed and the ability was about to come out, a kunai traveled in Hiro's direction. He realized then that he had completely fallen in Minato's trap— Minato wasn't escaping, he was looking for the right moment to attack.

Minato transported to his kunai, grabbing it with his left hand while his right activated the Rasengan. Hiro had never seen anything like that ability, but he knew he could never expect something predictable from him. The very man Jiraiya Namikaze himself— Minato's master— had spread the word that this boy would be the one to resurface the clan; an authentic genius who invented his own techniques.

The Rasengan fully impacted Hiro, strongly pushing him to the floor. Not even by seeing that ninja on the floor did Minato let his guard down. He saw the seal he had placed on his back and took a distance from him, once again trying to move his pained hands. Seeing that Hiro wasn't moving, he returned to grab his horse and leave from there, but when he was just doing so, a hand grabbed his own, placing it against one of the ruins' walls. He wanted to move when a sole cry of pain came from his mouth upon feeling a kunai being nailed into his hand.

He looked at it. Hiro had also nailed his own over Minato's and a stream of blood slid down the wall from both hands.

"Now you won't be able to escape. Don't make me nail your other one, too." Hiro smiled as he began sliding his other hand down his chest. "You've taken me by surprise with that attack back there. You're an interesting guy, Minato, but still far too young."

"You shouldn't be able to move," Minato claimed, biting his lip. "The Rasengan is an attack of very high power, you should be on the floor for a few hours if it does not kill you."

"Perhaps to some other ninja, but you're forgetting I am an Uzumaki." He smiled, biting his free hand and letting Minato see how he absorbed part of his chakra to recover. "We have more resistance than other ninjas."

"I forgot," Minato said, trying to move his right hand. "Next time, I won't fail."

"There won't be a next time for you, Minato. I acknowledge that you're good, but you've never been in a competition like this one and you're still too young."

"Stop underestimating me!" Minato shouted in annoyance. "I hate that you treat me like some trophy you can take to bed!"

"That's what you are, little one," Hiro whispered, biting Minato's ear lobe but Minato tried to move away. "That's it, let your character out. I liked boys with character, they're much more fun to break." Hiro smirked even more.

"Go to hell," Minato said, making a pair of seals with the hand that wasn't nailed to the wall.

Hiro assumed that his hands wouldn't be able to move, not even his left hand served for making seals. He had assumed that his right hand was the one less frozen to make them, but he had been mistaken. He noted that it wasn't a normal seal; he was summoning something. He hurried to take his hand before Minato could bring it up to his mouth to get the blood needed for the summoning, but so distracted was Hiro on him doing it, that he didn't notice the kick from his side.

His hand tore with the kunai from the force that the horse had put into its strike, taking him down and pushing him against one of the walls in the back. He would have never expected that the horse would attack him, too. He had only been focused on Minato and his strategies. He really couldn't underestimate him; he was a slick kid.

With a lot of effort and suffering, Minato grabbed the hilt of that kunai and took it out to liberate his hand. With the same enemy kunai, he cut the rope to his side, activating the traps he had placed that night as he grabbed the reigns of his horse with difficulty so he could mount it. 'Yokaze' didn't wait; it began galloping away as soon as Minato was on top of him and he didn't stop. Only Minato's unconscious body remained on top of him with the reins tied to his wrist; it was the only thing keeping him on top without falling off.

The horse remained galloping for half of the morning, looking to get away from the battle site, looking for a safe place where he could stop. But that seemed impossible when he observed a few ninja riding on horses coming out from the trees as they tried to catch up to him. The horse accelerated its pace despite the pain and the strength fading from him at times. As stubborn as his owner, he didn't think to stop there so they could hunt him, they were just taking advantage of the moment because Minato was unconscious.

The whistle of his breathing was the only thing that was heard— the horse's effort to maintain speed despite its pursuers beginning to catch up to him. They were just about to get on the horse's side, when a pair of shuriken pierced the two ninjas— knocking them down on the ground and letting their horses continue on their way while the third ninja, upon seeing the scene, gave up on the chase.

Before him, a proud-looking ninja appeared with the reins of a black horse in his hands. 'Yokaze' didn't think of stopping, but the ninja ran in its direction, getting in the middle and obligating him to stop and stand on its hind legs to avoid from stepping on him. Doing so was a bad idea. Minato's body began to fall backward but luckily, Madara realized and grabbed him before he fell.

"Hey, calm down, it's okay," He tried to caress the animal's thigh to calm him down. "I got him."

For an instant, he looked at the horse that breathed with difficulty and moved its head violently. Its stomach was soaked with sweat, giving Madara an understanding of how much time the horse had been running without rest. From the horse's nostrils, a bit of blood began to fall from the effort he had put in and it seemed as if he would fall over at any moment.

"Rest, boy. He's safe," He assured. "He's safe. You've done a great job. I'll take over from here. You're safe with me."

The animal's legs quivered from so much trembling and finally, it fell to the floor as it tried to recover it's breathing. With one already on the floor, Madara opened Minato's grey jacket, trying to find a pulse on his neck. He was weak and his body was too cold and rigid. He was entering into a hypothermic state and his hand was nowhere near better.

"Fuck," Madara complained, getting up and unbuckling the belt on his horse's saddle.

He let the saddle fall to the floor and took the quilt from underneath. He unbuttoned his black jacket and placed it over Minato before wrapping him in his horse's blanket. He rubbed his hands all over Minato's body, trying to give it warmth. With his mouth, he bit the tip of the black gloves he wore and pulled on them to take them off so he could put them on Minato's torn, bloodied hands.

***

Minato opened his eyes very slowly. He felt a strange warmth. He couldn't recognize anything about this place but when he tried to move to look at it more closely, he found himself with all that clothing on top of him. This blanket was not his and much less the black jacket he had over his.

"You're finally awake," He heard a deep voice at his side.

"Madara?" He strangely asked.

"You had me worried."

"How long have I been unconscious?" He asked worriedly.

"Since this morning and it's night time. You've needed a bit to count a whole day. How did it occur to you to spend the night out in the open? In this zone, the temperatures fall extremely during the night. That was crazy, you could've died from hypothermia."

"Yokaze?" Minato asked, even more worried.

"He's sleeping. Let him rest. When I found him, he was about to burst from so much running. I've given him some curating herbs. He should be good by tomorrow. You're lucky he brought you to me."

"Wait... to you? He ran in the opposite direction?"

"Maybe he thought there were less ninja back than ahead. You're lucky that I was still behind and that he found me. What happened?"

"The Uzumaki attacked us up ahead." He whispered but then noticed the fire that was lit in the middle of the place. "You have to turn that off, they could find us." He said, alerted.

"They won't find us. Calm down. I have control over the earth element; we're in a cave and I've closed the entrance. Nobody can see this fire. Now rest and be careful where you lean those hands on, I won't dare ask how you even got those wounds."

"He nailed a kunai in it to immobilize me," Minato said, taking Madara's gloves off and seeing how the raven had already bandaged it. "Why...?" He began saying something, head cast down before a curious Madara. "Why are you helping me?"


	8. A Feeling

A tense silence had been made inside the cave. Minato couldn't do anything else but stare at his wounded hand and then look at the other one that strongly gripped Madara's glove. That man had saved his life twice during this dangerous competition and he continued to do so without knowing the reason why.

"He nailed a kunai into me to immobilize me," Minato said, taking Madara's glove off and seeing how the raven had already bandaged it. "Why...?" He began saying something, head cast down before a curious Madara. "Why are you helping me?"

"Who knows," Was Madara's only response. "Maybe... it was when I heard your horse's name. It's a beautiful name."

"It can't be because of that." Minato assured.

"Do you know what mine is called?" Madara smiled. "'Yoarashi'. Do you believe in coincidences, Minato?"

Upon hearing the name, Minato was paralyzed for a second. It was true that this changed something— both had made a reference to the night in the names of their horses. It couldn't be some simple coincidence.

"For a moment, when I heard it, I thought that it was possible we'd have a connection, I don't know... but it can't be a coincidence that we'd think of something alike." Madara smiled. "And then there's your clan's matter: it's too weak now and you made me remember my brother's actions when he saved you from that ninja that tried to kidnap you— I don't know, Minato... you've created a weakness in me. I don't want to see you die here. You're too young to die in a place like this."

"I gave him that name because of the wind that blew that night," Minato said with a smile. "What's more... the wind is something typical in our clan."

"The day they brought me this horse, there was a great storm." Madara smiled.

"Perhaps we looked up at the sky at the same time." Minato added.

"It's possible. Come, get closer. I want to see how your hand is doing."

Minato moved the blankets over him and approached the fire where a few fish had been cooking— surely Madara had fished them out before closing the cave. With caution, Madara untied the knot on the fabric and began taking it off to check the wound. It had stopped bleeding, but the other could barely close his hand due to the pain. That kunai had been nailed through.

"It's going to leave you with a good scar." Madara told him.

"I don't care. I'm still alive."

"Yeah," Madara whispered, taking out a bottle of ointment from his clothes. "This'll help it scar faster."

"Ah!" Minato complained, trying to pull his hand away upon feeling Madara's fingers apply the ointment.

"I'm sorry, I can't do anything about the pain. It'll be difficult for you to fight with this hand for some time."

"That's fine, I'm alright."

"Deal with the pain a little. I have to heal this for you or it'll get infected."

Minato opened his hand despite it costing him to keep it open from the pain. The Uchiha's dark eyes fixed themselves upon the wound once more. The blood had clotted but even so, he could clearly identify where the hole from the kunai had been made. To be honest... it didn't appear like it had been a very decent battle. How could someone nail a kunai in someone else's hand? It was almost impossible to do that during combat.

"What happened?" Madara asked, sliding his fingers along the border of the wound as he applied the cream while his other hand fed him some fish so he could eat and recover his energies. "This isn't your typical battle wound. Did you lower your guard?"

"I don't know..." Minato said, eating the fish. "He shouldn't have been able to get up after the blow I gave him, but it wasn't like that. I had forgotten the Uzumaki are able to recover by biting at their own chakra. I completely fell in his trick."

"Wasn't he supposed to be your brother-in-law? Why would he want to attack you?"

"I suppose for the same thing as always," Minato said. "He wanted to sleep with me. Isn't that what all the ninja want? They just want to show off in front of other ninjas that they've had sex with a blond. We're just trophies since a long time ago. I don't even know why you haven't tried anything with me yet." Minato forcibly smiled.

"You're not some trophy for me, Minato. You're a good ninja that deserves respect and whoever doesn't see it like that, they don't deserve to be called ninja. It's possible that you're too young and that you've never participated in a race such as this, but... you're good. Your abilities are unique and special; I don't care if you're blond or a brunette— you'll still be the same determined man that I now see before me. This is done, Minato." He said, separating his hand from the blond's and closing the bottle of ointment. "Let me bandage it for you again. You might be able to move it a little despite the pain by tomorrow."

Madara's agile fingers began bandaging the blond's wounded hand once again. Minato attentively observed the Uchiha's hands. They were soft despite him always believing that they should've been rough— everyone knew the Uchiha trained many hours a day, so they must've had calluses, but they didn't.

"What are you looking at, Minato?" Madara curiously asked.

"Your hands," He said. "they're... soft."

"Yours are torn." Madara chuckled. "I think you train too much; they already had wounds on them before you even entered the competition and now... they've gotten worse."

"Us Namikaze don't have any talent of blood," Minato said with his head cast down. "We don't possess the Sharingan like you do, nor the Byakugan like the Hyuuga, and neither a chakra to recover ourselves with like the Uzumaki. We're too weak. The only thing that makes us strong is hard work and our intelligence. I invented all my techniques; nobody has anything like mine, but my one ability... is to take the enemy by surprise and be much faster than he is. To take him out without him touching me or at least... without giving myself the least amount of damage."

"And that's what makes you the more admirable," Madara encouraged him.

Those words made Minato raise his gaze in surprise. No one had ever said something like that to him; nobody had ever admired him. Everybody thought they were superior to his clan and the fact that those words came from the one he considered to be much stronger than him, had stunned him completely.

"All the other ninja are sure of themselves because they've inherited the abilities of their ancestors, just like me. We learn to use them, but we think that there is no need to train so hard because we don't have rivals. Nobody has our abilities. And then there's you: a young man without any blood abilities that has trained like no other knowing that the other participants are much stronger than him, that they have bloodlines to which he can't win against, but you're here, showing them that hard work can do more than inherited blood. It's easy to not be scared when you have a blood ability, what's difficult is doing what you do: being here with only your training and your abilities that were made out of cleverness. They should all respect you like I do. You have the courage to continue on ahead knowing very well that it's possible you might die here."

"I don't mind dying," Minato confessed to Madara's surprise. "Not even my life belongs to me. If I come out alive... I'll marry Kushina Uzumaki and half the ninjas of her clan would take advantage of any opportunity to violate me, just like her brother tried. I have no escape whatsoever," He commented, seeing how at that moment, Madara clenched his fists with force. Upon realizing he was being observed, Madara raised his gaze, losing himself in those blue eyes.

"Sorry. It just frustrates me and pisses me off knowing that your own brother-in-law... the one who'll be a part of your political family, is thinking about sleeping with you. That's falling too low."

"You're the only one who doesn't wish to do that," Minato said, softly approaching him.

For an instant, Madara's eyes lowered from the other's blue eyes to the young one's lips. He watched how the other pronounced those words and he couldn't deny that it excited him. Of course he had thought about sleeping with him, the man attracted him. There was something exciting about him but Madara was not like the other ninjas; he would never force himself upon that boy.

"Why do you not wish to be with me?" Minato softly whispered in front of the lips a tensed Uchiha.

Both could feel the closeness and it was bothering Madara. He couldn't go on like this. He noticed his heart accelerating, his eyes perplexed in the perfect, outlined lips of that blond boy that kept getting closer to him each time but he could not move. His body refused to move away from him. His brain shouted at him to back away but his entire body refused to respond to such demand, waiting to feel the contact of his lips.

The graze came like the most delicate of caresses— a simple graze in which Minato's lower lip brushed against Madara's lower one, moving slightly upwards as if teasing to want to kiss him. Madara sighed, closing his eyes and letting himself be invaded by the situation, by the aroma the young man radiated of lotus— a characterized flower that grew in his village surrounded by water.

Doubt assaulted Minato for a second; the doubt of whether he should continue or not. The thought made him back his nervous lips away a few millimeters despite still being able to smell the fragrance of chrysanthemums that characterized the Uchihas. Minato smiled for a second, remembering still how the royal family always cultivated chrysanthemums, a flower that seemed to grow naturally near the Uchiha, perhaps demonstrating that they had the authentic power.

Madara didn't dare to say a word despite his curiosity he felt towards that smile. He refused to break that magic that had formed between them. He still felt how Minato's lips trembled, all of him trembled with uncertainty of the moment, but not even that made him stop. Once again he pushed his lips onto Madara's, waiting for the other's response, a response... that didn't make him wait when Madara slightly opened his lips, taking between them the blond's lower lip, sampling them for the first time with total tranquility.

Madara's hand reached for the young one's blond hair, caressing the back of his head while the other, little by little, continued to get closer to a Madara who could not think of anything else that wasn't the boy. He knew that surely this was something he was doing out of rebelliousness— that perhaps he wanted to do something voluntarily before dying or even before they force him to marry. Slowly, Minato got close to him, sliding his knees until he managed to sit over the raven's thighs, both refusing to break the kiss.

None of the two could have imagined that they would've found love in a place like this. This was only a battlefield where there were daily fights for survival and where everyone betrayed each other, however, all of that seemed far away to them inside the cave. It was ironic and even a bit absurd to fall in love in a situation like this one, but they didn't care.

Minato's shaking hands reached the bandana on Madara's forehead engraved with the Uchiha clan symbol. His hands reached around the other's hair, searching for the knot to untie and as he was doing it, in an attempt to unite his lips with the other, his forehead clashed against a Madara who began laughing by such clumsiness. Nerves could be traitorous sometimes and not everything came out the way you wished it to be, but Minato, too, smiled after apologizing for the random impact.

"You're safe with me, so calm down." Madara said, grabbing the other's wrists and bringing one of the blond's hands up to his lips to deposit on them a sweet kiss.


	9. The Cave

The crackling of the flames consuming the wood was the only thing that could be heard within the deep cave. Minato separated his lips for a few seconds before Madara could unite them again with impatience. To Madara, the possibility of falling in love in a competition like this was very remote; even more when he had barely lost his brother a few days before all of this.

Minato Namikaze looked like a lost, lonely boy—one that bad luck followed. Had he been born in the Uchiha clan, he would've had a great future ahead of him, but he had the bad luck of being born to the Namikaze clan—an almost extinct clan—a clan that would do anything to resurface, even if it meant selling their best ninja to the highest bidder so long as they got alliances. That boy was lost. If he got out of this alive, he would lose his freedom and would marry Kushina Uzumaki.

That thought made Madara's blood boil in anger. That sweet and passionate boy was going to belong to a woman. They were going to bring him into the clan and surely... half of those ninjas in the Uzumaki clan would force him to be in their beds. He couldn't stand the idea.

Taking out a force of will that Madara didn't think to have at that moment, he managed to place his hands on the young one's waist, separating him for a bit. Minato knew something was going on; something was bothering the proud Uchiha and surely it had to do something with his behaviour. With a sad and painful look, Minato faintly moved away from him, giving him some space while lowering his gaze towards the floor.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to make you uncomfortable." Minato said, but Madara realized that he was misinterpreting the situation.

"Do not apologize, I am not refusing you." Madara said, getting Minato to raise his gaze towards him with a strange shine of surprise in his eyes. "It's just.... I want you to be sure about this. I... I don't want to be like everyone else, Minato. I'll never ask you for just sex, nor will you be a piece of meat on my bed for me to use just for a good time; I don't want that from you. I know that for everyone else you're some sort of trophy, that they all want to take you to bed and I don't want you to be just that."

"I don't understand," Minato confusingly said. "I can be nothing more than this for you. Marriage between men isn't allowed and you know that. I don't also believe that you've fallen in love with me—not in such short time."

"I just want you to be sure about what you're doing, that's all." Madara said. "I'm honored that you've chosen me but I need to know that this is what you want and that you're not letting yourself be influenced by the idea that you're going to lose your freedom or that you're going to die here."

"It's the first time I _can_ choose," Minato said with a smile. "And I've chosen to be with you."

"This could be a problem for you. If the Uzumaki clan finds out about this... that you stopped being a virgin before marriage..."

"They won't find out." Minato claimed. "Kushina is a woman, there's no way she could enter me and the rest of the Uzumaki..." He paused for a moment before assimilating what would happen in that clan. "Well, you know..." He smiled sadly. "Kushina won't come live with me in my clan and they're only arranging me with her because the Namikaze need a strong heir. They believe that by joining Namikaze blood with Uzumaki blood, they would get a stronger line... but I'd have to live in that clan and I don't think the rest of the ninja would leave me in peace."

"They'll find out you're no virgin."

"But they won't be able to say anything about it," Minato commented, very sure of himself. "Because if they say that they've violated me, they'll have to deal with the leader of the Uzumaki. Kushina is his daughter; he'd be off with their heads, so they wouldn't risk it. They wouldn't say anything."

"Don't marry her." Madara told him, grabbing the back of the boy's head to look at him fixedly. "You know what those clan ninja will do to you, you can't go live in that clan."

"I have no other choice," The other said, shedding a tear to which Madara tried quickly drying with the tip of his finger. "Please... this is the only thing I am able to choose in my planned life. Everybody decides what I have to do for me... let me choose something for once. Just... one night with you. I don't want my first time to be forced by an Uzumaki."

For once, Madara understood the words his father always said when he used to train with them: This world was not designed for the weak; and despite Minato not being weak, his clan couldn't say the same. The situation bothered him, he couldn't hide that. He didn't want him to pay the consequences of the bad decisions of an entire clan or their weakness, but he could do nothing for him except try to mitigate his pain a little.

The raven—impatient and moved by the rancor he felt at that moment—moved his hand towards the back of Minato's head, pulling him towards him to devour those lips with utmost passion than before. He knew that this was the only thing he could do for him at the moment. Minato let himself be taken by the rhythm of such lustful kiss, that it even made him moan a few times. The Uchiha have always been fiery by nature, or at least they seemed that way.

Minato sat over Madara's crossed legs once again, looking for the heat of his body. For the first time, he felt free. It was the first time he decided what to do on his own will without anyone trying to manipulate his life or ideas.

Madara's impatient hands returned to Minato's waist, traveling over his torso and raising the shirt while they traveled from his back to the blond's nape. Madara sighed as he felt the pale, fine skin under his hands. He could tell the boy barely got out of his village; he didn't have many wounds of having fought in other competitions or from having problems with other ninja, but you could tell from his abdominals of the exercise he was subjected to.

Minato raised his arms, permitting Madara to take off his jacket. Those dark eyes fixed themselves over the multiple bruises that the boy had all over his body but said nothing. Surely they had been the cause of the last battles he's had or from frustrating attempts from the other ninja when they tried to have him by force. At least he was a man who knew how to defend himself, although he was still too young to be in this competition.

Minato's long, fine fingers managed to close despite the pain and caressed that pure dark and soft hair the Uchiha had. Upon hearing the faint complaint from the blond over his wounded hands, Madara carefully grabbed them between his, separating them from his hair to move them in front of his face and deposit soft kisses over them—kisses that made Minato blush instantly.

"What...?" He whispered, trying to understand the motive as to why he would do something like that.

"Don't force them, Minato." Madara smiled. "Let them rest."

"But—"

"There's no need for you to touch me. Your hands are too wounded."

"I can do it."

"I know you can. But I don't want you to force them. The competition has barely started and you're going to need them. Leave it to me, alright?"

"Alright," Minato surrendered.

Placing his hands back on the blond's back once again, Madara began laying him down softly over his horse's quilt—the one he had left as a makeshift bed to avoid the moisture from the ground. They were close to the bonfire, so much so, that when Madara finished getting rid of his ninja shirt, upon looking back down at Minato, he could only be absorbed in the brilliance that, thanks to the fire, completely illuminated Minato's eyes. He realized at that instant how attractive those from his clan could be. Their lips reunited once again, this time provoked by Minato's action of sitting up a bit, passing his arms around the raven's neck to pull him closer and savor his mouth.

Their tongues united in the most beautiful and playful of dances—enjoying each other, closing their eyes and letting themselves go while listening to the faint sound of the crackling wood being consumed by fire. Madara's waist slid gently over Minato's crotch, filling the room with uncontrollable sighs and gasps that couldn't be silenced by the increasing pleasure they were beginning to feel between caresses.

Madara didn't waste time in getting rid of the other's bothersome pants. A big part of him was drowning from the desire of having him, but another part felt guilty for being there: having sex with a participant when he should be looking for his brother's assassin. Everything was strange, but he couldn't avoid thinking that Minato was becoming a great weakness for him—a weakness that no Uchiha should allow himself and even so, he couldn't nor wanted to separate this weakness from him. He couldn't separate from this boy.

Gently, he introduced his fingers in Minato's mouth, indicating him with a soft voice to lick them because from there on, he would no longer be a virgin despite no one ever knowing of it. Minato licked his fingers with a bit of fear and doubt in his eyes; Madara could see it without the need of his Sharingan. The blond's entire body shook at the idea of pain, at the uncertainty of completely giving himself to practically a stranger—the only one to date that had treated him nicely in this bloody competition.

"It's not going to hurt, I promise." Madara told him.

"You can't promise me that, I know it hurts."

"If I use my Sharingan to create a pleasant illusion for you, I can take the pain away."

"It's not necessary. You'll need your ability for the competition; it's not convenient for you to force it."

"I won't force it, but I'm not letting you feel pain, either." He whispered to his ear as he activated his Sharingan, creating an illusion that would eliminate the pain he would feel.

It was true that Minato did not feel the pain, although he did feel the pressure of Madara's member entering him. Minato knew that surely once the illusion ceased, he would feel the pain, but for now, he was alright and he thanked the Uchiha for it. The two kissed as the raven continued with his intromission; moving in and out of the narrow cavity and beginning to moan. That gesture meant a lot for Minato as not many could say they had managed to make an Uchiha enjoy himself and surely he could never say it either, but at least... he knew it.

Minato felt how Madara's hands tightly gripped around his waist, moving more violently, much quicker. The two gasped, but Minato had to hold on tightly to Madara's arms that were now positioned on either side of his face from the wave of pleasure. All his muscles tensed, they hurt but not like something bad—they hurt from the tension of the immense pleasure.

"Don't contain yourself," Madara told him with jagged breathing.

"But...you..."

"Don't worry about me, come on... let yourself release."

Once again, Madara felt how Minato's wounded and bandaged hands gripped tightly around his arms while he gasped uncontrollably; his entire body convulsing until his member began ejaculating, all the while relaxing all of Minato's muscles. Madara smiled triumphantly, but he didn't stop. He continued until arriving at his own pleasure—something that wouldn't take long from the narrowness of the boy.

Minato observed Madara's sweaty face, trying to regain his breathing while Madara continued moving in his interior. All of Minato's muscles had relaxed and Madara knew he had to hurry before the boy's narrowness could also begin to relax. He accelerated his movements and gasped, giving his best grunts of pleasure and convulsions to the boy he was slowly falling in love with. Upon finishing, he didn't even want to come out of him; he let himself fall over Minato's chest and laid there, lacing his fingers with Minato's.

"I'm sorry," He heard Minato say. "I came too soon and made you hurry."

"There's nothing wrong," Madara smiled. "I'm happy it happened that way. I've seen you enjoy yourself and that means a lot to me. It was your first time, so it's normal to release sooner. Don't take it into account. Next time you'll last longer, you'll see."

"Even so... sorry."

"Minato," Madara raised his head to look at him. "Thank you." He whispered close to him, supporting his forehead against the blond despite seeing the uncertainty in Minato's eyes—Minato didn't even know why he was thanking him. "Thank you for letting me be your first. Thank you for choosing me."

"I..." Minato whispered, somewhat blushed, but then... something strange happened: a tear slid from his cheek—a tear that, to Madara, seemed painful and he didn't understand why. "I'm sorry." He finally said, this time actually beginning to cry. "I'm very sorry." He sobbed, not letting Madara understand why but even so, Madara let Minato go—letting him get up to grab his clothes and cover his nakedness as if he had committed the worst of crimes.


	10. A strange guilt

The fire slowly ceased under the watchful gaze of a bewildered Madara. He couldn't understand anything of what was going on, but Minato had moved away from him all the way towards the deepest corner of the cave and wrapped himself however he could with his horse's blanket. He was convinced that he felt guilty about what they had done despite him being the one who had asked for it. Perhaps he had let himself get carried away by the moment and only now was he realizing what was happening.  
  
No matter how many times Madara circled around it, he just couldn't understand it. Was it because of his pending marriage? Was it because he had failed the demands of his clan? What was the damn motive for Minato to be immersed in that strange guilt? Whatever it was, he preferred not to say anything until the rays of the sun came out. He couldn't even see them from the confinement of the cave, but Madara could hear the movement of the forest when it woke up. The chirp of the birds, the leaves of trees in movement, the hasty steps of rabbits and hares—it was the beginning of a new day and they had to get out of there.  
  
He turned off the small bonfire, releasing a few seals of water and then looked towards a scared Minato who was there, paralyzed. Madara didn't know whether to go towards him or leave him, but in the end, he only approached him a bit; close enough to see him but not invade his space, one which he now guarded suspiciously.  
  
"Minato, we have to move. There's still a day and a half left to arrive at the central post. There, they'll take all other participants into account and give us a day of rest."  
  
"Alright," He heard Minato say, trying to recover.  
  
"Listen... I'm sorry if I've done something wrong."  
  
"It's not you. I shouldn't have done it but it's already done... I can't go back now. I'm sorry, Madara, you shouldn't have gone through this."  
  
"Is it because I'm your rival here and you shouldn't sleep with me?" Madara asked, puzzled. "Or is it because of Kushina?"  
  
"It's because you're an Uchiha, and not just any Uchiha..." He whispered, starting to grab his things and checking over his horse who now seemed to be better.  
  
Madara didn't understand why it was so important to Minato that he was an Uchiha, and much less... 'not just any Uchiha'. Those words were burned into his mind, but no matter how much he thought about them, he couldn't find a meaning. It was known that his clan was feared, but he saw no relation as to why Minato could or couldn't sleep with him. Perhaps his clan had forbidden him from maintaining deals with the Uchiha, and Madara, on top of it all, was the leader's son... he wasn't sure, but he couldn't investigate any more. Minato wouldn't let him.  
  
After looking at him for a few seconds, he decided to return to his horse and place the blanket along with the saddle and reins. Once ready and checking if Minato also was, he opened the entrance to the cave and began walking, softly pulling on the reins of his horse so it would follow. He assumed Minato wouldn't want to ride as to not force his horse; that would only make it a slow travel.  
  
"Do you think there are many ninja left in the rear?" Minato asked, breaking out of the tense silence he had kept up for the last twenty minutes of the walk.  
  
"I don't think so. They tend to have a small break fro everyone in the middle of the competition. They count the participants that are still left and we can rest before the big push to the Imperial city."  
  
"So you think they've already arrived."  
  
"No. I doubt anyone's arrived today, but I'm convinced that by tomorrow morning or even this evening they'll start arriving at the safe zone."  
  
"Will we arrive?"  
  
"At this pace, no. We'll arrive tomorrow as soon as possible but it doesn't matter when we arrive. We'll have less hours of rest but even still, it'll be enough. There you can rest for a bit and they'll heal your wounds. Surely enough, the family will be there."  
  
"The family?" Minato asked, halting his steps before Madara's surprise, who also stopped his pace to look at him.  
  
To Minato, that posed a problem. He knew for sure that his father had left the city, however, there was one person who would be waiting for him, and not only for him... but also for her brother. Kushina Uzumaki would undoubtedly be there and he still didn't know how he would explain everything that had happened with her brother. He didn't even know if he should tell her.  
  
"Yes, the family. What's wrong?"  
  
"Nothing. Nothing, I guess." Minato stated as he began walking.  
  
The raven watched how Minato continued walking, though, at times, the blond's eyes would drift towards the right. It was nothing strange to assume that something worried him, something to his right. Perhaps it was the place where fought the last time. Madara approached him and placed his hand over the blond's shoulder, making him tense for a second and immobilizing him the next.  
  
"Do you want us to go see?" Madara asked. "Your horse came from that direction."  
  
"There's no need."  
  
"It was the Uzumaki, no? Come, let's go check it out."  
  
"I don't want to face him again." Minato whispered.  
  
"He's probably already moved on ahead. Why... you didn't kill him, no?"  
  
Minato instantly opened his eyes—he wasn't too sure about that. What should he respond with? Up until now, he hadn't even thought about the possibility. They had fought and his horse had separated him with a kick from his side. Perhaps in under normal conditions he would have tried to help him, but... he was so weak that the only thing he could do was hold on to his horse and let him take him out of the battle zone.  
  
On one side, he felt the doubts eating away at him: he had no idea what had happened to Hiro Uzumaki. He had abandoned him there badly wounded, but on the other side... he had to escape, or so he felt. If he had stayed and Hiro had been apt to continue fighting, surely he would have no hesitation in raping him. That thought alone kept the blond from not regretting doing what he had done.  
  
"I don't know," Minato finally responded/ "I don't recall much of what happened. We fought and... I left him there."  
  
"Let's take a look." Madara stated. "You fought at those ruins, no?" He asked, pointing towards a construction that towered faintly towered over some trees. "It's not far, let's go."  
  
The two of them walked further into the ruins—Minato behind Madara, observing the emblem engraved on the back of his jacket. The Uchiha seemed to always have everything under control and so he felt safe at his side. Upon arriving at the ruins, the two entered despite Minato trying to warn him about where he had placed traps. There was no need, though, because upon crossing the final arch, they both witnessed how the traps had all previously gone off and Hiro Uzumaki was nailed against one of the farthest walls. Surely he had bled out there without being able to move.  
  
"Fuck," It was the first thing a terrorized Minato could articulate upon seeing the man in such state.  
  
"Looks like his competition is over."  
  
"I... I didn't want to do this to him." Minato whispered, his eyes wide opened, more than they needed to be from seeing him like that.  
  
"Stop looking at him," Madara told him, walking him out of there. "We all know what we're up against in a competition, Minato."  
  
"But..."  
  
"He wouldn't have hesitated to kill you. You did good; you protected yourself and he fell in the trap, forget about it. Nobody would blame you for this. We all know how competitions are, we know there are lows, that people die and many of the ninja who participate don't just like to defend themselves—they like to show that they're much stronger and wouldn't hesitate to kill. So stop torturing yourself like you're doing now. Come on, let's be back on our way."  
  
Madara tried to get him to get out of there, but he couldn't. Instead of that, Minato walked over towards the body and pulled out the three-pointed kunais that were a characteristic of his clan. He wanted to take the body and for the first time... Madara was beginning to understand what the blond was thinking. Minato was thinking of his future wife and about how he could not leave her brother there. In the end, and despite his will, Madara had no other option than to let out a sigh and get closer to help the boy. He couldn't recognize himself—helping a boy whom he had barely met—as a strange feeling was awakening within him and it was too strong to contain it.  
  
"Shit," Madara whispered.  
  
He was now close to Minato when a whistle came to his ears. His body moved much faster than his mind and he pushed Minato along with the body to the ground. A kunai passed by, grazing his shoulder and faintly ripping through the sleeve of his shirt, making him bleed, but at least he knew that Minato was alright. Surely it had been a trap—some string that one of them had cut and hadn't seen. One thing, however, was clear: Hiro Uzumaki had not been killed by Minato, because Minato knew his own traps and wouldn't have fallen in any of them. Someone had been here, someone had battled against the Uzumaki after Minato, and someone had left a very clear message: he was killing off everyone that had in his way. First, his brother. Then, the guy back at camp before the competition started, and now Hiro Uzumaki. They had an assassin on the loose and he worried more about it each time.  
  
"What's wrong?" Minato asked, blushed upon feeling the muscular body of Madara over his back.  
  
"You weren't the only one to place a trap here." Madara said. "I don't think it was you who killed Hiro. Someone else was here."  
  
"But... they're my weapons." Minato commented.  
  
"They could've grabbed them from one of your traps."  
  
Madara looked at Minato. He didn't exactly want to say everything that he was thinking, but he also hadn't eliminated the possibility that Minato was involved in all of this. These were his kunais, the previous ninja had been killed with speed, Izuna because they knew him. Minato could perfectly be it and on top of it all... there was the whisper of his brother... "Na" and "Mi". He could've been trying to say his last name, perhaps his name, maybe it was him. Minato had been unconscious when Madara found him; even pretending to be weak could be a strategy for no one to suspect him. The point here was... he couldn't discard anyone as a suspect except for the dead.  
  
"You think there's someone else killing competitors? Why?"  
  
"I don't know," Madara replied. "Perhaps he's anxious to win."  
  
Even in that he had to admit that he favored Minato. His clan was on the edge of extinction, they needed this contract no matter what. Everything seemed to point to him, and even so, Madara refused to believe in it.  
  
"You're bleeding." Minato said once looking at his arm. "Let me heal it for you."  
  
"It's nothing, we have to move from here. We're too out in the open."  
  
"Please... it'll just be a second."  
  
Madara couldn't do anything else but to sit down once again and take off his jacket, leaving on his dark shirt with the clan emblem on the back. Luckily for Minato, the short sleeves let him see the wound much better. Grabbing a bandage from the ones he carried on his leg, he ripped a piece of it and bandaged Madara's strong arm, making a knot to tie it.  
  
Minato's fingers grazed softly over the soft skin of Madara's arm, sliding down gently over its musculature. Such caress grabbed the Uchiha's attention, who turned instantly to observe how Minato's sweet expression had been lost in those fingers and on his arm. He was blushing and surely thinking if he was doing the right thing, but when he raised his gaze unto Madara's profound eyes, neither of the two could avoid kissing each other passionately. They couldn't stop what they felt for each other, but it was Minato who suddenly broke the kiss upon looking towards the corpse.  
  
"No..." He whispered. "God! I can't keep doing this!" He reproached himself.  
  
"Come on, Minato, stop blaming yourself. Your feelings and your actions give you away; you love being with me and I don't see any problem in it."  
  
"I'm going to get married, Madara! Where do you not see the problem in that? Fuck! I can't do this, I can't fall in love with you. Damn it...you're my rival in this competition! I can't let myself lose, my clan depends on me!"


	11. A breath

_He was falling in love!_ He couldn't believe it still that in a competition where he thought to be searching for his brother's assassin, he would find a complete opposite feeling: love. He was there-competing against all these ninja for revenge, for hate because he desired justice for his brother and instead... he had found a different feeling. He had found sweetness, innocence, the urge to protect someone.

That night, he observed as Minato slept peacefully on the other side of the fire he had lit. He was inching away; he could tell. The distance between them kept growing despite the both of them dying to hide it. It was that arranged marriage that had kept Minato away. Madara didn't know how to fight against that.

The walk the next day was slow and silent. The tension between them could be felt a league away. Those corresponding feelings the two had for each other were being repressed in the worst of ways. They arrived late at the camp where some participants waited patiently. Others had not yet arrived.

Minato walked forward, indicating his horse to follow but then suddenly stopped, surprising Madara. The Uchiha stopped next to him for a second to look at him; his head lowered and surely thinking of a way of how he was going to explain everything to Kushina. The raven looked at the late Uzumaki's body on top of Minato's horse.

"Don't give explanations," Madara told him.

"But..."

"You don't have to explain, you don't even know if you're the one responsible."

"She's his sister, she has a right to know."

"Do whatever you want. Although, if you still wish for that marriage to save your clan from the despair they live in... it's best you keep quiet or they could break the deal they have with you."

"Why are you helping me? You didn't want me to marry."

"I still think the same, Minato."

"But I can't fall in love with you, our clans won't permit us to be together. Two men being together is looked down upon," Minato said, although later smiled. "It's ironic: it's absolutely fine for them to have sex as they consider it a form of mutual trust between warriors, but on the other hand... they won't permit them to be together later on."

"It's for heirs," Madara said. "Sleeping around once in a while is fine, but they don't want the loss of offspring. Your clan wants you to have children and I could not give you them. My father would also want children to lead my clan, and you can't give me them, either. That's why, Minato."

"Then there's no other choice, Madara... I'll have to marry Kushina. We could never be together."

Minato began walking once again, away from the Uchiha. However... Madara was assaulted by a grand doubt, one that he couldn't wait to resolve.

"Minato," He called out, obligating the other to stop and turn around. "If you would've been able to choose... would you have married me?"

"It's possible," Minato smiled with a certain sadness. "I don't know, and I guess we'll never know. It's impossible, Madara. They would never permit it, not your clan nor mine."

"Even so...I'm glad to know that." Madara smiled. "Rest up."

Bothe stayed there for a few seconds, immersed in each other's gazes and realizing that this was a goodbye for their feelings. Minato was the first to lower his gaze-a gesture that broke the raven's heart into a thousand pieces upon seeing him so depressed with a life full of expectations and no exit whatsoever. He wanted to jump in and comfort him, he wanted to hug him, but once he made the first step to walk towards him, Kushina appeared. She was all smiles, throwing her arms around Minato's neck and happy to see him again alive at this half-point of the way.

"Minato," Kushina called out to him although the blond didn't react. "Hey... what's wrong?" The redhead asked, grabbing him by the cheeks and raising his frustrated face. Minato didn't seem to be able to find any words.

"I..."

"Are you alright? Has something happened?"

"No... not to me," Minato then said, faintly looking back towards a horse who waited patiently with an inert bulge on the saddle. Kushina seemed to understand at that moment and brought her hands up towards her mouth, covering her shock and pain.

"No... not my brother..."

"I'm sorry," Minato said, once again lowering his head.

"What happened?" She asked in despair, running towards the horse and trying to get her brother down but being unable to. "Minato, who did it?" She asked once again, uncontrollably crying-something that provoked tears from the blond who was clenching his fists without knowing what to respond with.

"We found him like that," Madara said, taking each of them out of their trance. "Minato wanted to bring him; he didn't want to leave him there abandoned. I'm going to rest, we'll only have tomorrow to gather our strength before continuing the last part of the competition."

Kushina fell to the floor, crying inconsolably without being able to get her brother down from the horse. It was Minato, who in the end, and with much regret, lowered Hiro Uzumaki's body and left it on the floor next to his sister. He was going to leave, but Kushina hugged him tightly and cried in his chest. He had no other choice but to stay there and try to console a pain that was simply inconsolable. He had already gone through that pain twice.

The camp didn't seem to be disturbed by what was going on in the entrance except for the Hyuuga who was looking at the scene with his Byakugan. Upon seeing Madara pass by his side, he spoke to him with a serious tone.

"So you've come with the Namikaze."

Madara suddenly stopped upon hearing Hiashi speaking to him. It wasn't normal for the Hyuugas to interfere or speak to other clans. They had always considered themselves to be too good as to lower to anyone else's level.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Why are you helping a demon?" He asked without anything more, something that surprised Madara as he threw a glance back towards the Namikaze.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Is your Sharingan failing you? Or is it that you can't see the same thing as I?" Hiashi asked, this time looking at him. "Get away from that boy, Uchiha, or you, too, will end up like the rest of the competitors."

"What are you talking about?" Madara asked, looking towards a Minato who didn't seem to know how to react upon the situation presented to him. "What is it that I have to see? Remember that your eyes are better than mine on seeing things; the Sharingan is only good for Genjutsus and Ninjutsus."

"Then pay close attention to me, then... Get away from that boy or you'll end up very bad." The Hyuuga repeated, marching away as he deactivated his Byakugan.

For the first time in such a long time, Madara activated his Sharingan to look more closely into Minato Namikaze, but was unable to see anything strange in the young man. What the hell had the Hyuuga seen with his eyes? Maybe he had only said it to scare him or to leave the blond alone in the battlefield... although, what he said could also be true. The Hyuuga weren't the type to lie like that; they had too much pride and felt superior to the other ninja. Hiashi wouldn't have cared if he fought against the both of them because he thought he could take them on. He had to have seen something strange. The only question here was... what had he seen?


	12. Obsession

Hashirama observed how Minato tried to leave. This was something he had never had to deal with. He was a part of the noblest family in the territory, all the clans owed him loyalty and when he got his eyes on some young man, he always ended up getting him one way or the other. He had only chosen to marry his wife to get a son, but in reality, everyone knew he spent his nights with the numerous young men that his power and influence had managed to provide him with, and now, he had set his eyes on Minato.

Even before the boy was part of the Uzumaki deal, Hashirama had already desired him, but that clan had gotten ahead of him. Even so, he wasn't going to give up. That boy would end up in his entourage at any cost. He'd be his best trophy.

"Don't even think to leave like that with nothing more," An annoyed Hashirama tightly grabbed Minato's arm.

"Don't touch me!" Minato got angered as he tried to get out of his grip, but no success.

"I am the feudal lord here, I control all this territory and all the clans owe me respect."

"We don't owe you anything!" Minato blurted. "Respect is something that should be earned, not imposed. I'm not your property or anyone else's so do me a favor and let go of me because it's no inconvenience for me to break your arm despite you being a feudal lord."

"Don't underestimate me, brat, I'm also a ninja; I could make you mine at any moment."

"And I could kill you way before you could even come near accomplishing your goal," He snapped back, feeling how Hashirama tightened his grip on his wrist.

"Let go of him," Another voice was heard from the side. "I said let go of him, now!" Tobirama shouted—the eldest brother and heir to the territory.

Hashirama let go of Minato's wrists with resignation as Tobirama approached them, apologizing to the blond for his brother's bad behaviour. Upon seeing that scene, Hashirama decided to leave, but in his escape, he found himself face to face with Madara.

"Now you're spying?" Hashirama asked.

"I didn't know the Namikaze interested you," Madara smirked. "I didn't think you'd fall so low as to do something like that."

"The fact that we were once friends does not give you the right to get in my business. That Namikaze will be mine sooner or later."

"Are you going to pay for him with your dad's money?" He smiled sarcastically. "Please... enjoy your retinue and forget the Namikaze. He's already engaged to an Uzumaki and their clan would never hand him over to you."

"Don't be so sure. I can offer them much."

"You can't offer them anything," Madara smirked.

"I see what's going on... you like him, too," Hashirama smirked this time.

"Possibly, but neither you nor I have a chance with him. The difference is that I'm aware and you're still obsessed with him."

"I'll offer them the longed-for position they want, political office."

"You can't, that's a right and a privilege granted by the ruler of the Senju family, in other words... your father. You can't do anything and [besides], the Namikaze want their clan to revive: they wish for offspring and you can't give that to them, neither can I. They'll never sell Minato to a male ninja and you know that. How do you think he ended up in an arranged marriage with Kushina Uzumaki?" Madara smiled. "They only want him to get her pregnant and have a strong alliance, to have a half Namikaze-half Uzumaki child. That boy has no escape."

"We'll see about that. He'll be mine no matter what it takes."

Madara watched as Hashirama walked away, angry. He could still remember his childhood years when he used to play hide and seek with him in the yard of the palace in the imperial city. He was a good kid, but something had changed. Perhaps it was the expectations his family placed on him, or maybe because they had spoiled him in everything. He was no longer the boy he once knew. Their relationship changed when Hashirama began treating the Uchiha as if he were his servant. At that moment, Madara stopped going over to play with him. He skipped going to the city and concentrated on training for his clan. Now after years of being unable to see him, he realized just how much that boy [from long ago] had changed.

That night, very few ninja managed to sleep. A few from the Uzumaki clan gathered there to give the clan leader's firstborn a funeral. Minato watched the funeral flames from the window of the dark, improvised hospital room. He couldn't cry; his tears had dried out a long time ago and despite knowing the suffering Kushina would carry inside her, he couldn't feel much for her brother's death. He had attacked him and it was very likely that he had killed him with his traps.

"Still awake at these hours?" Minato heard Madara's voice.

The blond's eyes descended towards his covered legs as Madara approached him. His back was relaxed on a pillow against the wall and his legs stretched out in front of him, but his hands... they clenched, demonstrating the impotence he felt at that moment.

"I can't sleep," Minato whispered.

"Stop thinking about it. We all know what we were signing up for when we decided to enter the competition. We know the risks."

"But..."

"But nothing. Maybe if it hadn't been you... he would've killed you. Stop thinking about it. It's been done."

"I should tell Kushina."

"And break a deal with the Uzumaki? Tell the Uzumaki and maybe that's how you'll end up in Hashirama's bed. Keep quiet and everything will be fine."

Madara sat on the chair next to a sulking Minato. He was only a young boy and that's what motivated Madara to think the best of him: of how innocent and sweet he seemed. Kushina was going to be lucky having him [at her side], but this also made Madara ponder about something important. It made him wonder...if whether that boy had really lived the short life they'd let him live.

"Have you ever fallen in love?" Madara asked, looking at Minato's intertwined fingers.

At that moment, his fingers loosened and his eyes opened in surprise towards the question. Madara immediately understood that no one had ever asked him anything about his life because no one had cared what he thought. Everyone told him how to live his life—what he had to do and what he couldn't do... but that didn't mean he didn't have feelings. Perhaps they had even forced him to love Kushina, but he didn't love her.

"Once," Minato said. "I think I've fallen in love once."

"I'm guessing it's not your future wife."

"No. It was a ninja, a good ninja." Minato smiled just like anyone in love would upon remembering the feeling. "We were going to run away from all of this together, but... we simply couldn't."

"You still have time to run away with him," Madara told him.

"No... I won't see him again," He smiled sadly. "Our clans... they would never allow it and it's too late now to make plans. It doesn't matter now; I'm going to marry Kushina and I'll have to love her."

"You won't be able to."

"Then I'll have to fake it."

"How long can you live a lie like that, Minato? All your life would be a cruel lie. The price to pay to save your clan is too high for you."

"Doesn't matter. I have to do it. They trust in me."

He couldn't help it anymore. To see how distressed this boy whose dreams were taken away from, his hopes, and his life, Madara moved his hand over to the blond's hair and moved a few strands behind his ear. Such gesture made Minato's body tremble in confusion and softness from the other's move. He knew he was falling in love with Madara and he couldn't permit that. He had fallen in love once and it was all taken away from him. Now he was imprisoned in a marriage he didn't want and he could no longer give his heart to anyone; he could not bear to get it broken with vain hopes. Nobody could take him out of his fateful destiny.

Madara, on the other hand, first noticed the boy's trembling body and then, the strange tattoo behind his ear. It was strange because he had never noticed it; his hair always hid it. If he hadn't passed his hand by his ear, he would've never noticed it.

"What is this?" He asked with concern.

"What is?" Minato asked in confusion.

"The tattoo you have."

"Tattoo? I don't have tattoos." Minato said, sure of himself.

"But...it's like a seal and it's marked right behind your ear."

"It's not possible," Minato said. "I haven't done any seals on me. To my knowledge, nobody has ever done a seal on me."

"They could've done it at birth," Madara commented.

"I don't understand. Pass me that mirror," Minato gestured to a small mirror on the table in the back.

Madara got up from the chair with a face of concern. He wasn't sure what was going on and that couldn't be anything good. He grabbed the mirror and walked back to where he was before, except this time, he didn't sit. Minato's hands grabbed the mirror with determination and tried to place it in a way in which minimally—and looking out the corner of his eye—he could begin to catch a glimpse of the seal on the edge of the mirror. He could barely see it well.

"It looks like... a seal," Minato said in astonishment as he tried to read it. "It's a seal from my clan. I don't know what it's doing there."

"Do you know what it is?" Madara asked.

"I can't see it well, but..."

"Minato... nobody places a seal in such a hidden place if it doesn't mean anything. It was thought out so not even you could see it a simple glance."

Minato continued moving the mirror, trying to get a better look at the tattoo but it was very difficult. Whoever had done it...had thoroughly thought it out to keep him from seeing it entirely.

"Draw it," Minato said in the end, placing the mirror to the side. "There has to be a paper and a pencil nearby, draw it."

He looked through the many drawers until he found a piece of paper, it was then that he took a pen from the counter and, after moving Minato's hair as he sat down, he begun to draw the circular seal. As the drawing began taking shape, Minato observed the symbol of four seals.

"That's the Four Symbols Seal!" Minato exclaimed.

"And what is it?" Madara asked, confused as he continued drawing it.

"It's to extract chakra."

"Extracting chakra? That means...you're extracting chakra from somewhere?"

"I don't know, it's possible... Jiraiya taught me how to summon and grab chakra from nature. I don't know," Minato claimed. "It could be related."

Upon seeing how a new seal appeared on the circumference of the four symbols, he realized that this was much more complex; something he had only seen once in his life and managed to realize...it was for emergencies. He had learned how to do that seal, he had been the one to perfect it.

"No... it's not the Four Symbols Seal," He said, terrified. "This is the Eight Trigrams Seal, I invented this!" Minato said as he realized.

"What is it?" Madara asked, confused as he saw Minato's eyes.

"You have to leave," Minato worried. "Leave now, get away from me."

"But... what's going on?"

"LEAVE!" Minato shouted. "Get far away from me, now!" He shouted once again.

Madara, seeing him in that altered state, decided it was best to leave. Perhaps he could ask at some other time, or if not... he would have to look for answers himself because now he had a name for that seal. He had to find out what Minato had invented and the motive as to why that boy had so much fear reflected on his face.


	13. An impossible love

His hands trembled despite resting on the sheets that covered his legs. He still couldn't believe that someone had used his own jutsu against him but he knew exactly who had done it. A technique like that required a lot of chakra, a lot of control, and only one person had such ability to use it apart from him, his master... Jiraiya.

Minato brought his right hand up to the side of his neck and [did so] until he covered the seal behind his ear. It was incredible how he hadn't noticed the moment they put it on him. Now everything seemed to make sense...so much... that a shiver ran down his spine. Guilt returned to him because...it could be him. He could be the culprit for all those occurrences. He should get away from everyone and most importantly... from Madara. He didn't want to hurt him.

The tears fell from his eyes once again. Nothing seemed to make sense in his life. He was in this competition, fighting for a lost reputation and surely...one they would never get back. All the clans had improved, they had those bloodlines that gave them gifts but them, [the Namikaze's], they remained stagnant. They would never have a gift, they couldn't be like the Kaguya clan with their deformity in their bones. There was also the Uchiha and Hyuuga clan—famous for their eyes—the Inuzuka for their [sense of] smell and the Aburame for their pact with the insects...but they had absolutely nothing to show off. They were a clan that would slowly be forgotten.

The squeaking of the door opening made him turn towards the shadow that entered the hospital room. He thought it'd be Madara, worried or even annoyed with his behavior, but no. That red hair was easily identifiable. Kushina walked up to him towards the bed where he was and with tears in her eyes, asked kindly if she could stay there with him for a while. At that, Minato had no choice but to accept. They had been friends since years ago and now that marriage which he considered a mistake, was all too real. He couldn't say no to Kushina, he knew how delicate her heart was and how infatuated she was with him. Besides... he could no longer be with the person he loved, so he didn't care much about this sacrifice; it was one of many he had already done in his life.

Carefully, Minato moved aside, leaving her a place at his side. Kushina laid down, her back against Minato's warm chest, letting herself be hugged by his strong arm. It was all the comfort she needed. She had lost her brother, but her future husband was there with her, cuddling her, trying to take her pain away with that hug.

"Thanks, Minato," Kushina expressed.

"It's just a hug," Minato simply said.

"I don't mean that," Minato looked at her a bit confused. He wasn't sure what the girl referred to. "I meant your sacrifice. I know you don't love me, at least, not like a wife."

"Kushina..."

"I know. We've always been friends and... it [must be hard for you] seeing me as something more."

"It's not that... I... I fell in love with someone months ago."

"But... then why are you marrying me?"

"Because it was a forbidden love, a ninja teammate, a man..." He explained. "I'm sorry, but... we're not allowed to marry men, just... enjoy them from time to time."

"The heir," Kushina whispered.

"Yes, the heir," Minato hugged her tightly.

"And if... I gave you the heir you needed," Kushina said. "And if I let you go with that ninja you speak of..."

"You're a good girl," Minato said to her, smiling. "You're a great woman and any ninja would be proud to have you at their side. I feel fortunate to be me."

"But you're in love with someone else and I don't want to be an obstacle."

"You aren't... that man would never come back," Minato explained. "That love is lost, I only have you."

"Did something happen to him?" Kushina asked, worried.

"Don't worry about that," Minato tried to smile. "Just stay with the fact that I'm going to marry you and we'll be happy. I'll give you the best of me and try to love you like you deserve to be loved. I promise you, I'll give my best effort and with time—"

"You won't love me," Kushina said, very sure of it. "Because you already gave your heart [to someone else], because you feel something stronger for men than women. I'll always be your precious best friend, but nothing more."

"You'll be my wife and as such I will treat you," Minato expressed. "I swear it."

"You were always the best, Minato Namikaze," Kushina smiled. "A gentleman within a cruel world. Always so nice and sweet. I'm sorry about your clan and your sacrifices."

"You're no sacrifice for me, Kushina," Minato tried to smooth things out. "We'll be happy, you'll see."

Kushina closed her eyes, letting her future husband's sweet fragrance take over her. She knew the competition would resume shortly, that Minato only had a day to recover and his hands didn't look all too well. However, Minato seemed to notice the girl's uneasiness and tried to fix things immediately.

"We'll spend the entire day tomorrow together. What do you think?"

"I'd love that," Kushina exclaimed, grabbing Minato's arm, the one that held her with gentleness.

For an instant, Madara's reflection appeared in Minato's mind but tried to shake it off. Despite his efforts, he couldn't help it and although he kissed Kushina, trying to position himself over her, he could only see that damn Uchiha. With that thought, stopping was complicated. Something was pushing him towards Madara, something he couldn't resist and thinking of him...made him make mistakes—mistakes like making that girl with a good heart believe that she was the reason he was moving at that moment when it wasn't true. He felt so despicable for wanting to have sex with a person when he really desired another.

He could see the difference in the kisses and the caresses: Madara was more wild and fiery but Kushina... she was sweet and gentle, but even so... he couldn't stop imagining that damned Uchiha. It was a long night for the both of them, a happy night for Kushina and a strange one for Minato. It was the first time that both had laid with each other, the first time Kushina could begin to see how that man accepted her as his wife, but on the other hand, Minato knew that it had all been a simple illusion because he didn't desire her, he desired Madara Uchiha. He couldn't spend his entire life thinking about him every time he had to have sex with his future wife and yet... it seemed like he had no other option. Surely it will be like this for the rest of his life.

Just like Minato had promised, they had spent that day together. From dawn and the first song of the rooster until sunset. He decided to go out at midnight to clear his mind after saying goodbye to Kushina. She would wait for him in the Imperial City where everyone was to reunite, the place that would put an end to the test despite anyone not knowing if they would reach the goal.

Faced with that uncertainty, Minato walked out of the camp hospital and walked amongst the tents and the rest of the ninjas who looked at each other knowing that it was the last round. He couldn't avoid looking into the eyes of the Hyuuga that were placed on him and instinctively, he brought his hand up to the back part of his ear trying to hide that tattoo. He didn't even want to hide it from the Hyuuga as it was impossible for those eyes to not see anything, simply... he felt odd carrying that seal. He didn't understand anything and as much as he touched it, he still couldn't understand any of it until he spoke with Jiraiya.

Minato walked for several minutes into the depth of the forest, arriving at a cherry tree that quickly lost its leaves as the wind blew. He leaned his shoulder on the sturdy trunk and from the top, looked down at the camp below him—at the bonfires where many ninja took shelter from the autumn wind that quickly approached. He crossed his arms and cuddled up, covering himself as best as he could with his jacket.

"How are your hands?" He heard Madara ask behind his back.

"They're better, thanks for asking," Minato said without once turning around to look at him.

"Listen... I... I'm sorry if I ever said or did anything that bothered you that time."

"It's not you," Minato said. "But what I said still stands. You should get away from me and the quicker the better."

"Is it because of that seal?"

"You know nothing about this seal."

"The Hyuuga spoke of a demon," Madara commented, looking at a Minato who seemed to slightly tilt his head towards him, looking at him through the corner of his eye.

"And if it is?" Minato asked. "What would happen if I was the demon?" He asked once again, turning around to completely face Madara, approaching him enough to have him within reach. "Would you kill me?"

"Minato—"

"Would you do it?"

"I don't know. I don't even know if you are it."

"You should do it; you should kill me now that you have the chance," Minato commented, moving his hands until they grabbed a kunai that hung from Madara's belt and placed it in his hand. "Do it," He repeated, gripping the hand that held the kunai and impeding Madara from pulling it back as he brought it up to his neck.

"You know I can't do it, not without reason."

"What more reason do you need? Maybe it was me who killed that Uzumaki, maybe, I was the one who skinned that ninja before the competition. It's possible your brother is dead because of me! If you kill me, all the problems would go away!"

"I don't kill people without reason," Madara whispered to him, ghosting his lips above the blonds. "And the only thing I see in your eyes is the urge of you wanting to kiss me."

Minato's hand trembled slightly, something that didn't go unnoticed by the Uchiha who ended up closing those mere millimeters that separated him from the blond's lips to kiss him passionately.

At that moment, Madara took advantage to get rid of Minato's grip, placing his hand over a Minato who tried to hold onto the kunai as hard as he could. Madara only gripped Minato's hand a bit, forcing him to drop the kunai.

Minato's back hit against the tree as Madara began tracing his hands under the blond's jacket. Both breathed deeply from the heat of the moment but to Minato, everything came down to that as much as he loved this man, he needed to keep him away. With that idea in mind, he stopped the kiss to speak.

"I've slept with Kushina," He let out, thinking that this would stop Madara, but the man only smiled.

"You think I don't know?" Madara asked. "I don't care so long as I can be with you. Any second by your side is worth it."

"I didn't know you were a romantic."

"You'll get to know me if you stay by my side long enough."

"I can't stay and you know it. Our clans would never let us."

"I don't care about the clan. I want to be by your side, even if I have to humiliate myself and be an occasional lover, even if I have to hide to see you each and every night."

"We can't do this, not to our future wives."

"The only one engaged here is you," Madara smirked.

"But you will be one day."

"That day is not here and now. You don't love Kushina, so of course... you only want me to kill you to avoid facing your shameful future. I won't do it until you prove to me that you're the actual demon."

"The Hyuuga told you, what more proof do you need? Look at this seal, it's proof of it."

"I won't do it," Madara whispered once again near his lips, kissing him passionately again.


	14. Back to the competition.

Minutes passed amongst the darkness that surrounded them. The fragile pink leaves of the cherry tree continued falling without any contemplation, creating the most beautiful scenery for those two men to continue kissing under the light of the moon. To Madara, this was all like a dream come true— being able to spend just a few seconds at this boy's side was everything to him knowing that, most likely, after this competition ended, he would no longer see him again. However, to Minato, this was all a practical joke to his conscience. He already felt guilty about what had happened to Izuna and now he was entangled with Madara Uchiha. That clan kept getting in his way again and again in a cruel destiny that he couldn't escape from.

A tear slid from Minato's right eye down to his cheek followed by a second one that this time, fell from his left. He couldn't help it that after those first tears, the rest would come without control. Madara, upon feeling the humidity on his fingers, separated his lips from Minato's and watched the boy cry in front of him. He couldn't even understand the meaning of those tears that seemed to carry a strange guilt.

"Forgive me," Minato whispered. "please, forgive me."

"What are you talking about?" Madara asked, confused.

"I... have to leave."

Minato made the move to leave but Madara, despite letting him pass, grabbed his wrist as he was leaving. For a moment, the two were paralyzed and a tingling feeling ran up the blond's spine as he felt Madara's fingertips caress his wrist as if trying to calm him down.

"Please, Minato. Don't make me do this. You know that I would never force you to anything but... I don't want you to leave like that."

"I'm sorry, Madara, it's what's best for the both of us. Believe me."

"It's not what's best for me," He said. "What's best for me is having you by my side. I know you're going to marry, I know that after this competition, surely I won't see you again... let me be with you for the rest of the time we have left."

Those words made Minato's tears come out in intensity. Madara was a cruel ninja according to the rumors, but he was seeing and getting to know a romantic part of him that hurt him even more than if he were to be tortured by him like he tended to do to his enemies.

"Shit!" Minato yelled to Madara's surprise. "Don't do this to me, don't get all sensitive with me. Don't use that sweetness and romance on me... I don't deserve it."

"Don't talk nonsense, why wouldn't you deserve to be happy?" Madara asked.

"You know nothing of this seal, pay attention to me and get away from me. It's for your own good!"

"I know how to take care of myself. I don't give a damn about the seal."

"You don't know what it's capable of," Minato almost threatened, fiercely grabbing Madara's wrist from the hand that had a hold on his arm.

For the first time in the time he had known Minato, he saw that rough look in his eyes—those eyes full of a strange feeling, full of certain fury and pain that he had not seen before. At that, Madara's hand lost grip until releasing the blond's wrist. He watched the blond slowly walk away from the tree, walk away towards his tent without even knowing if he would see him around in the competition the next day. He had been acting strange ever since finding out about the seal and despite not having said anything, Madara still kept thinking about the Hyuuga's idea. It wasn't normal for a Hyuuga to be scared and of course... that Hyuuga was scared of Minato.

When Madara returned to his campsite, he was curious to see his two new students sitting in front of his tent. It was hard to tell both boys that he was not a good teacher when Izuna was teaching them. In part, he felt responsible for those two—they were his little brother's students. He huffed and began walking towards them as they seemed to be debating something.

"Still here?" Madara asked. "You should return to the clan."

"Not until we find Izuna's murderer," Obito said, very serious.

He was only about Minato Namikaze's age; both Shisui and Obito would be great warriors, good ninjas who in the future would surely get the Uchiha clan out of a tight spot but now... Madara only wished they return to the clan and continue on with their lives. They were just teenagers who shouldn't be here much less see this type of competition. Not even Minato should be here competing.

He sat for a second next to those teenagers who looked at him with admiration. They were good kids who only wanted vengeance for what had happened to their teacher, but everyone knew that it wasn't recommended for those two to be here.

"I know how you feel," Madara began. "I feel the same. He was my brother and I feel as though it's left an enormous void within me, a void that I cannot fill with anything. However, looking for his killer is something I should do and you two should be in the clan training, strengthening up and making yourselves much stronger with everything my brother has taught you. This is no place for teenagers."

"The Namikaze is competing and he's a teenager."

"He's a teenager who shouldn't be here. He's just a kid who doesn't care to die."

"That's not true," Obito said, kind of annoyed. "No ninja would be willing to die that easily, I don't think that guy is here because he doesn't care."

"You don't know him, Obito," Madara got angry. "You don't know anything about his life, nor what he's doing for his clan or what they're forcing him to do to get out of the place they're in. That boy is losing all will to live with every day that passes."

"You know him that much?" Obito asked somewhat confused.

"Enough from this competition. We've survived together most of the time, although, really... he's a complicated guy to understand. I never know what exactly he's thinking.

"And if he's Izuna's killer?" Shisui asked.

"I've considered the option but still don't have enough proof for that to be true. Either way... I'll find the killer at whatever cost and make him pay one by one for what he did to my brother," Madara's gaze hardened.

Practically no ninja managed to sleep that night; everyone was nervous about the new departure, even Minato knew that Madara's trick from last time wouldn't work this time. Sneaking away from the participants wouldn't be easy—now there were hardly even half of those who had been in the competition the first time and... they would be entering the final stretch of the race. A couple of days more in the competition and they would be in the city, maybe not even two days if they took the race seriously.

The following morning, the atmosphere was much tenser than the first day. All the ninja looked to one another. Obito and Shisui, watching from a tree branch, watched the participants, watched Minato Namikaze on his horse as he led it to the exit line.

Minato looked at his hand. That raven was right: it still hurt and the scar, although it was closing, would be there forever. He closed his fingers with strength, feeling the pain in his tendons. Surely the kunai the Uzumaki had nailed into his hand had destroyed part of his nerves and tendons; it'd take a while to recover completely.

"Your hand continues suffering," He heard Madara next to him on his horse.

"I'm fine," Minato tried to hide it.

"You won't even be able to grab the reins well. Unleash Yokaze, let him run free and don't fall."


	15. An unfortunate encounter

The tension was there. All the horses huffed while their riders looked at one another, waiting for their exit. In just a few seconds, the competitor's eyes watched attentively towards the hands of a ninja that carried the flags. Minato was no exception. Seeing how Madara posed his eyes on the flags, he imitated him, knowing that this time... he couldn't depend on him. They were rivals, competitors, and this was the last round. No longer were there alliances, friends, and neither loves that were worth it, now there was only one objective... win no matter what the cost.

The flag was swung forcefully. The whines of the horses were heard just before everyone began to move and, for the first time in that race, Minato managed to run out along with the rest of the competitors.

No ninja was willing to be defeated, so they did anything to win. Minato, knowing this, paid careful attention to his rival's movements, trying to avoid landing his eyes on Madara. He knew very well that by looking at him, it'd be just another distraction.

From the lines behind him, the sound of [shuriken] was heard. Minato, upon hearing them, looked towards the back and watched how the weapons went through many competitors, heading towards his direction as he was almost at the head of the pack. With that in his field of vision, he took out one of his kunai and threw it forwards, past the leader of the race.

Madara had been speeding up on his horse so he could get to where Minato was in a desperate attempt to get him out of those bloody weapon's trajectory, however, before he could get there, Minato had simply... disappeared. Everyone was shocked at that, seeing how the shuriken landed on the ground after losing impulse. Only a yellow flash appeared in front of them, placing itself first in line.

Madara smiled with a certain irony. He had seen that boy use his kunai— seen him use that great speed of his that characterized the Namikazes— but he had never expected that he also take his horse with him on his next jump. That boy learned at a fast pace and had no fear of making mistakes. He did it over and over again, inventing his own techniques and continued on forwards. He was a strange kid, but smart and attractive. For the first time, [Madara] began to think that that boy really didn't need as much protection as he had initially thought.

"Let's speed up, Yoarashi, or that boy will leave us behind immediately," Madara smiled, kicking his horse slightly as to make it speed up.

Despite Madara's attempt to reach him, everything was useless. His horse was much faster and when it seemed as though he could almost reach him, [Minato's] kunai would soar the skies once again and transport him a few meters ahead of him. Seeing as it would be impossible to reach him until the race calmed down, Madara let him take distance. It'd be much easier to reach him when he lowered his guard and was relaxed.

After a few minutes of an intense race, everything seemed to have calmed down despite Madara having no idea where Minato could be. He had a hunch that he wouldn't be too far; he couldn't have gone far too great a distance and much less after the tiredness that the exit placed on their horses. He should be resting at some point.

The morning was too calm. Madara walked carefully through that dense and sinister forest. It could be just another normal day in that place but to Madara, everything was a clear sign that something was wrong. Not even the birds sang that afternoon. The clouds obscured the daylight and a cold breeze came blowing from the cold mountains. If the weather continued to change like that, then he should stop to take cover, although that meant losing more time.

From the map he had studied days before the competition, he knew that there should be a small temple not too far from there. Surely he could take shelter there and wait for the clouds to pass by with the cold rain they'd bring. Maybe... it could even snow from the cold wind that came from the mountains.

'Yoarashi' bumped his nose onto Madara's shoulder, indicating his concern for the clouds. The weather was changing rapidly, too rapidly. In an attempt to calm his horse down, Madara slid his hand over the horse's nose, caressing it softly.

"I know, Yoarashi. It's best to take cover. The temple isn't too far from here."

Madara took the reins and began walking, pulling his horse along to indicate where they were going. Barely twenty minutes later, the temple appeared in front of them. It wasn't in perfect conditions... in fact, it seemed to be almost abandoned, but it would serve them as shelter from the storm that was on its way.

For the first time in a long time, Madara left the security of the forest behind him and walked towards the flatland. Walking slowly towards the temple, his pace was halted when a [shuriken] was thrown and nailed to the floor where he almost stepped on it. Luckily for him, his eyes were always much faster than any ninja's and that made it so that he could avoid stepping on the weapon. Upon lifting his gaze, he watched inexpressibly how Hiashi Hyuuga stood in front of him.

"What a welcoming," Madara let out.

"I didn't expect to find you alone."

"Come now... don't lie," Madara smirked. "your eyes are better than mine in terms of vision. You could see me from kilometers away and knew that I was alone. Minato must be in the frontlines."

"He's not far," Hiashi smirked. "although I prefer to make as little sound as possible and wait for him to get away from us. It's not convenient having demons near."

"He's not a demon. He's a good kid, somewhat lost, but a good kid nonetheless."

"You haven't seen the same as I have," Hiashi spoke. "You continue being as blind as on the first day. The boy cannot be trusted."

"It's not that boy you're thinking of."

"I don't think of anything... I've simply seen what he's hiding and it's not good. If you continue at his side, you'll both be caught up in events out of our reach. Pay attention to me and get away from him. Put as much distance between you as possible. You'll never be able to be with him, you'll only harm each other."

"How do I know you're not saying this so you can keep him to yourself? Many have tried getting him in their bed before."

"Because I'm not so stupid as to risk my life for some brat. Believe me when I tell you that the demon is behind him. It won't permit anyone to get close to him and you'd end up terribly bad if you continue at his side."

"I'm not thinking of giving up on him so easily. Surely he'll soon be here."

"I won't allow him to appear."

"Are you talking about me?" Minato asked out of nowhere.

Hiashi had been speechless from the impression. It was true that he had been somewhat concentrated on Madara and their conversation, that he had lost sight of the Namikaze and with how fast he was, he wasn't surprised that he had arrived here in merely a second.

"What's going on?" Minato asked, surprised as he touched behind his ear involuntarily, as if he knew they were talking about the seal.

"I thought you'd be far away from here. The goal shouldn't be too far," Madara spoke without looking at him.

"With the storm that approaches, I doubt that even my speed can get me there. What's more... you made me use my teleportation too many times; I'm exhausted and needed to rest," Minato spoke from the top of his horse.

"I'm not thinking of sharing this temple with that Namikaze," Hiashi said, but seeing how Minato reached his hand behind him to pull out a kunai, he seemed to anticipate. "And neither do I want to fight you," He assured, surprising Minato.

"Why not? Isn't this supposed to be a competition?"

"I won't fight you nor will I get near you in any possible way because everything that's at your side or goes against you, ends up dead. I still value my own life enough to know that it's not convenient to mess with a demon."

Minato seemed to reflect on that without once revealing the part behind his ear. He understood Hiashi's words and trusted those mighty eyes that the man possessed. [Hiashi] had seen something in him, something that the others couldn't see. Now more than ever, he thought that he really was the one guilty for those murders, that this internal demon was what was causing all these problems.

"Minato?" Madara asked, somewhat concerned from the young one's reaction.

"I... think he's right. It's best I leave," He said in the end.

"Are you wrong in the head? You can't leave, we'll have a storm over us soon, you should take cover."

"I'll find somewhere else."

"You're not moving from here," Madara threatened, walking towards him with anger in his eyes as he grabbed him by the collar of his jacket. Despite his hand raising to hit him, he couldn't make him look at his eyes.

"Do it," Minato said. "Come on... you know as much as I do that I'm only a monster, a demon. For once and for all, do it. Finish me."

Hiashi widened his eyes in surprise. He hadn't expected Minato to accept it and neither to practically beg to be killed. He also didn't expect to see Madara so immersed in his own feelings as if he were trying to save that boy no matter what, even if he had to punch him a few times so that he could wake up.

"I'm not going to kill you, idiot," Madara said.

"You should. We've spoken about this once. Come on... kill me. If I'm such a threat to everyone else, then this is what's best. I'm not losing anything."

"We're talking about your life."

"A life I can't control!" Minato shouted, surprising Madara. "I'm going to marry someone I don't love! My clan controls me and I have a damn demon inside me, what the fuck are you waiting for to finish me?! I don't need nor want my life!"

Madara finally understood a single thing from hearing all that... this boy hadn't entered this competition for his own clan, he had entered voluntarily in search for a good death, trying to escape from his disastrous fate, trying to get liberty even if that was his own death. Finally, he could see how fallen he was, so much so... that he wanted to escape in the easiest way possible.

Thunder took over the sky, breaking that tense moment. Silence reigned when rain began falling and soaking the three that stood there, mixing drops with the tears that slid down Minato's eyes.

"Do it," He whispered once more. "It could be me who killed your brother, it could be me who had killed all of them."

"There's no proof of that," Madara said, clenching his fist even more upon hearing how he referenced his brother. "If you're innocent and I kill you, I wouldn't forgive myself."

"I'm not," Minato said.

"I won't do it until the contrary is proven."

"Enough," They heard Hiashi's voice. "You should enter and take shelter from the rain. It's not convenient to get sick at this stage of the competition."

"But..." Minato tried to speak.

"Just this once will I share a roof with you. I'm not inhumane. Take cover... but get out of my sight as soon as the weather gets better. I don't want to have you near me for much time."

Madara only let go of Minato's jacket forcefully, pushing him towards the stairs of the temple where Hiashi stood. Minato looked at him for a few seconds, trying to recover his equilibrium from the push, but after looking into the serious eyes of the raven, he walked towards the temple with his gaze down. Once inside, Madara grabbed the horses, saving them from the rain on the porch. He passed by a serious Hiashi's side.

"Why the change of opinion?" Madara whispered with a terrorizing gaze, thinking that the man was up to something.

"Because although the demon follows him... I think he's still an innocent kid. Not everyone is willing to give their own life to save everyone else and that boy... was willing to let you kill him if it meant taking the demon as well. I'll sleep with one eye open either way. Me trusting that kid doesn't mean that I'll trust the demon," Hiashi assured, surprising Madara who had finally realized that Hiashi wasn't as bad as he had first thought.


	16. An unexpected end

That temple had since then become the only witness of the encounter between the three ninjas from different clans. Many battles had there been between clans but for that night, the three seemed to be calm despite their nerves. The storm didn't seem to die down and their glares couldn't stop crossing each other.

Minato was the first to get up from the floor and walk towards the window to watch how the rain continued falling. Perhaps he thought or dreamt about what his life could've been—whether or not that rain could wash away part of his pain and sadness. Madara approached him but when he went to place his hand on Minato's shoulder, he stopped and noticed how he trembled.

"You should come closer to the fire," Madara said, throwing a glance towards the back where a few logs burned in the chimney.

"I'm fine," Minato replied.

"You're cold."

The tense silence was maintained. The Hyuuga didn't dare say anything in front of them. Madara felt there was an insuperable abyss between him and the blond; an abyss that no matter how much he tried to jump over, cross or climb it... didn't seem to shorten the distance. He thought about leaving and going back to the fire, leaving Minato to his own [space]. He had already turned around to excuse himself when he heard the blond's voice more alive than ever with a grand smile and an innocence [Madara] had never been able to imagine seeing in such cruel world of death and war.

"Snow," Minato smiled, watching the snowflakes fall on the humid earth on the other side of the crystal.

Madara observed the strange phenomenon. They had never seen snow before; the Uchiha dominated flame. Their village was set up on suitable land to avoid this kind of climate and so were the Namikaze who were too distanced from the mountains.

Only once had Madara seen snow and it was during a long, dangerous mission that took him to a most remote area of the country—a zone more elevated than the mountains. He smiled and did so simply because he remembered his own surprise when he had seen those cold flakes drop softly against the ground for the first time. Minato had used the same expression of surprise and enthusiasm—the same one that Madara recalled his brother, Izuna, making whenever he saw something new and beautiful.

Minato's hands touched the cold crystal, losing his gaze on the snowflakes that fell and froze everything in its way. He looked back, seeing how the two men were behind him, watching him with surprise.

"What's wrong?' Minato asked, scared.

"You've reminded me of my brother when he went with me on a mission and saw the snow. Perhaps you've also reminded me of myself. We were very surprised to see it."

"I've never seen anything like this before. They've told me about it, but... I suppose seeing it in person is much better. I didn't expect to see something like this. I always thought my competition would end soon."

"I wouldn't let anything happen to you," Madara said, grabbing Minato's cold face between his hands.

"Please... leave that for another moment," The Hyuuga intervened, making a face of disgust. "Don't [be touchy] in my presence."

"I had no intention of it." Minato said, pushing away Madara's hands from his face. "I'm going to sleep. I'll leave at dawn."

Without anything else to say, Minato marched off to one of the corners next to his horse to sleep. He covered himself as much as he could with the quilt his horse also had over him and closed his eyes as he was set to rest from the tough day he had. He should be as refreshed as possible because the race was coming to an end.

When Madara woke up the following day, he turned around towards the corner where Minato was supposed to be but saw how he was no longer there. In his place, he heard a neigh coming from outside. He quickly got up and looked through the window watching how Minato, dressed and armed, mounted his horse to leave. The first rays of the sun hadn't even been up yet.

"Shit!" Madara exclaimed, putting on his jacket and weapons to run out but when he was finally outside, Minato was already distancing himself from the place.

The Uchiha walked in with [the devil at his heels], grabbing his things quickly and preparing his horse. It was complicated catching up to that boy and even more when [Minato] had been the first out and possessed his speed. Even so, [Madara] had to try to catch up to him now that [Minato] didn't notice anyone following him because once his eyes caught sight of any other ninjas, that boy would run like the wind itself and [Madara] was sure he wouldn't be able to catch up to him.

"Where are you heading off to so quickly?" The Hyuuga asked as he woke up.

"After Minato. He just left."

"If I were you, I'd let him leave far away."

"You know I can't do that," Madara smirked.

"[Smitten lunatic]," Hiashi huffed. "That boy will bring you to your grave."

"We'll see," Madara grinned, finishing up with tightening the girth on his horse and mounting it to leave at full speed.

Despite his great effort to follow the blond, he couldn't find him throughout the entire day. He continued forwards towards the grand imperial city because he knew everyone would be heading there, including Minato. Everyone was looking to finish with that macabre race. However, when Madara was about to give up on finding Minato and could see the gates to the great city in the distance, he was shocked to see how Minato was on his horse a few meters ahead looking at an ice sculpture.

Madara approached him but upon arriving, he saw with the same fear Minato had in his eyes how this was no simple sculpture, but one of the competitors from the country of water. He was completely frozen in front of them. For a moment, he knew that something was going on in Minato Namikaze's mind. He tried placing his hand on the young man's shoulder, but the other pushed it away, showing his uneasiness.

"Don't touch me!" He shouted at him in fear. "Don't get close to me!"

"Don't start with that, Minato."

"Anything that gets close to me ends up dead, so get away!"

"You know I can't do that. I prefer dying knowing that I had you and was happy for a few seconds than to live knowing I lost you."

"Don't be romantic in a situation like this. Death isn't something you take so lightly. Look at him closely." He said, pointing to the cold sculpture. "He only tried to win me in speed. He just wanted to pass me and get ahead. He ran at my side when he was frozen."

"It's not your fault."

"Yes it is, damn it! Why do you not realize? Everyone dies at around me!"

"It doesn't have to be you!" Madara exclaimed.

"Of course it's me, look around you... I have this damned seal! I know very well what it is and I assure you it's nothing good."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I invented it!" Minato shouted. "I created this seal to avoid the greatest of problems—to trap a demon who left no village in its wake, to incarcerate him."

"What are you talking about?" Madara worried.

"I thought they had allowed me to invent it only to capture it; I didn't think they'd end up putting it in me. I don't even know how it even got to me but I know very well what I invented. The demon that the Hyuuga talks about... is me." Minato cried. "In the end... you'll have to kill me if you don't want any more people to die because of me."

Madara was shocked at such declaration, watching as Minato's tears slid down his cheek. His hand shook from the rage and impotence—it shook close to his kunai. Minato looked at him carefully, keeping his hopes up that [Madara] would finally dare inflict a definitive blow—to end with his existence—but instead of that, both saw how another horse passed by their side at great speed towards the goal.

"Fuck," Madara whispered, alarmed that the other ninja would win.

Both galloped behind him, momentarily forgetting the conversation. In this competition, there was no place for doubts; it was either win or die trying. Nobody wanted to fail the feudal lords.

The ninja turned his head, watching how those two were at his heels. Madara, on the other hand, moved his eyes from the ninja ahead towards Minato, trying to push away the blond's conversation out of his head—the one who was drying his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket without stopping his horse in the persecution. He looked to be determined to win at whatever cost.

The three rode in parallel trying to get ahead of each other. The goal was visible at a few meters ahead of them. The people who had gathered at the entrance of the grand city euphorically applauded and shouted as they waited for the winner.

They entered the last stretch, riding without stopping even for an instant. The road was too narrow for the three riders but neither of them wanted to let the opportunity of winning the competition escape. Minato was too immersed in keeping an eye on the finish line that he didn't even notice when the enemy took out some kunai and threw them towards him. To Madara, it was only a millisecond, as if everything were slow motion. He saw the kunai heading straight to Minato and not once hesitated to put himself in front of him despite Minato already having teleported to the goal.

The kunai was inevitably lodged in Madara's shoulder but despite his grunt of pain, he frustratingly watched how Minato crossed the line, earning the cheers of the civilians. He clicked his tongue, frustrated and angry at himself because he could have won but was more concerned on that blond than himself. Being in second place wasn't that bad, but... even still... he hated losing.

He looked at the other ninja and knew that if he didn't focus, he wouldn't come close to second place; he'd be third and that was something he would never forgive himself. He activated his Sharingan, forgetting about the pain on his shoulder, and created an illusion so that his opponent would stop in his tracks, giving him way towards the goal. His eyes met with Minato's at that moment... seeing in them the blond's guilt for having won against him; it was sadness but at the same time... he knew he had done the right thing because everyone here was there to win.

"Damn it," He exclaimed in a whisper.

Minato watched him from a certain distance. He owed everything to Madara. He had saved him countless times during the competition—he had helped him and even in that last moment, Madara preferred to be injured than to let anyone harm him yet Minato couldn't let him win. Perhaps he was selfish or it was simply the pressure his clan had placed on him, but there he was: disappointing the only man who had trusted him and had supported him.

"Madara?" Minato asked, trying to talk to him to know exactly what he could be feeling right now.

"Leave it," Madara said dryly. "Go claim [your prize]."

"I..."

"I said... leave it," Those were the last words from Madara before he left to tend to his exhausted horse.


	17. Goodbye

Minato was ecstatic, the reins of his horse in his hands. That man, Madara, hadn't even wanted to get off his horse; he had marched off without looking back and it was at that moment that Minato knew everything had ended.

He tried looking for his people with his gaze, but the only familiar face he found amongst the crowd was Kushina's as she tried making way towards him. He breathed deeply and swallowed as he began walking towards his future wife. He was ready to forget Madara though deep down he knew he could never forget him. He pushed a couple of people aside, trying to get to her, but the feudal lord caught him before he could continue.

"Great timing," The feudal lord said. "Accompany me, we have much to talk about."

"I... to be honest, I only have one sole request," Minato said, but the feudal lord, despite having heard him, continued on his way, forcing him to follow if he wanted to be heard.

Kushina observed amongst the crowd how her future husband followed that man, although she was calm to see that Minato had seen her and gave her a sign to wait for his return. Even so, she couldn't avoid seeing the other competitor's faces as they arrived only to learn that a Namikaze had managed to defeat them. Nobody there would be happy with this.

For Minato, those gazes on him didn't go by unnoticed. Nobody understood how he could've won, but there he was, following the lord within the grand palace until arriving at a grand salon with the council already reunited.

They all looked at him in surprise, but Minato waited until the feudal lord took a seat. His eyes were fixed on his two sons. He knew them well, especially Hashirama who continued looking at him with those lustful eyes full of desire. He would never give up his eagerness to have him and Minato knew this too well.

"Alright, we're listening, Namikaze," The feudal lord spoke. "You've won the right to be here under the protection of my lands."

"I... greatly appreciate your gesture, but I didn't enter this competition to be your armed wing. My clan only wants a small position in your personal council."

"All this for a slot in the council? Come now, you've earned it! You're here, you can be a great soldier, you _and_ your clan."

"I appreciate your kindness, but... we just want to be part of the council. I believe the runner-up would be a much better warrior than us Namikaze."

The council fell silent for a second before murmuring amongst each other. The whispers were audible although Minato wasn't able to make out the words. It was all about debating about what to do with this strange idea. Everyone had competed to become the feudal lord's warriors but this boy... had broken the norms and only wanted a spot in the council.

"Alright," The feudal lord began. "Give us time to think about it and we'll send our decision. You can return to your people. I'll have someone call your future wife so you can reunite with her."

"Thank you, my lord." Minato bowed before walking out of the grand salon.

He marched away from the salon, then observing Hashirama's gaze. Once walking out the door, he found himself in front of Madara, but despite the instant blush that was placed on Minato's face, the other didn't seem to even notice.

They both noticed, however, when their shoulders bumped into each other as they crossed paths and even still, Minato could only lower his head upon seeing him pass by without saying a single word. It was noticeable that he was annoyed at the fact that he came in second place. He realized that he could never have everything... helping his clan would always be something counterproductive to the Uchiha clan. Those Uchiha only ever had one reason for their existence; they were stuck-up and it was possible that they were, in fact, the best at everything, but [Minato] had humiliated him and relegated him to second place. He'd lost him. With this competition, he'd lost absolutely everything.

Madara walked into the salon without knowing as to why they had called for him when he hadn't even won. There was Minato, in front of him as he walked out of the same salon he had to go into. It was so difficult not wanting to pounce on him and hug him, to kiss him... but Minato had just wounded him where it could hurt an Uchiha the most, his pride.

He bit his lip once closing the door behind him. He thought about how of little importance he must've been to Minato, but on the other hand... he thought about how difficult it was for Minato to be in that situation and perhaps he was being a bit unfair towards him. He had to win for his clan but as much as he wanted to forgive that blow to his pride, something kept him from doing so. When he really wanted to solve it all, the doors had already been closed and the feudals were calling him.

**A year later:**

Sitting on the tallest rock in the river, Madara observed how the water flowed. It never stopped; it was like time. In that place, he felt much closer to his brother: a brother whom he would never know anything about, the one whom he would never share a moment together once more, and one he would never understand as to why he had that impulse to save that young man.

His return to the clan hadn't exactly been memorable after having ended up in second place, however, despite that, the feudal lord had hired his clan as his personal guards. For a moment, he thought about the possibility of seeing Minato again, the one who had entered the competition to ask that his clan be of service as a part of the council, but... he never once saw him again.

The Namikaze clan had resurfaced from their ashes although it was only to give advice, but Minato had disappeared amongst the shadows of his clan. Surely he would've married Kushina, living in the Uzumaki clan and possibly even be thinking about becoming a father or perhaps... he never married, although, Madara doubted it.

"Thinking about him again?" Shisui asked.

"I thought I could take him out of my head... but I can't."

"Maybe it's because of how things ended," Shisui smiled, sitting next to him on the rock. "You went through something intense during that time but... you guys didn't even say goodbye."

"I was mad at him," Madara smiled sadly. "I didn't think I'd regret it so much now not having said goodbye as I should've. I thought that if I hated him... it'd be much easier but... I was wrong."

"Have you not heard anything about him?"

"No. It's as if the earth has swallowed him whole."

"He's in the Uzumaki clan." They heard Obito's voice behind them. "It was hard for me to find him... I didn't think he'd really take the marriage to Kushina." He smiled.

"You followed him?"

"Not exactly. At first I was curious to know how he had defeated you, but... although I tried to locate him, there was no way. I guess his clan hid him for a while; perhaps he wasn't psychologically well after all those deaths from the competition. A few weeks ago though, I found out he was living in the Uzumaki clan and that he had married. A waste of a boy." Obito smiled.

"Do you think he could've been the one to kill Izuna?" Shisui asked with a certain doubt in his voice.

"I don't know," Madara said. "Everything pointed towards him but it seems the deaths have ceased."

"Because they're not attacking him." Obito smiled. "Everything's much calmer now. Let's hope no one dares lay a finger on him... or we'll have another pile of corpses to bury."

"I don't think it was Minato," Madara said. "Although, one never knows. The Hyuuga was very scared of him. I've never seen a Hyuuga be afraid of anything or in this case... of someone."

"He was a strange kid," Obito said. "I think it's best he's far from the clan; he brings no good. I don't know if the Uzumaki will be safe from him."

"Drop it," Shisui said, looking directly towards his partner, Obito.

At that moment, Obito fixed his gaze on Madara's tense face. Whatever they were saying about Minato didn't seem to sit well with him, but at some point, he had to open his eyes. Tragedy followed that boy.

"I... I'm sorry," Obito tried to retract.

"No... it's true. Everything you've said is true. That boy had something. I've doubted everyone but... I didn't think Minato would be my brother's assassin. Lately I even doubt that. It's possible that it was him but it's difficult to prove it now that he's so far away. I guess for now everything's back to normal. Nothing's happened."

"Not until another tragedy occurs." Obito insisted once more.

"If another one occurs... then I'll have no other choice but to investigate him," Madara said with the most serious tone he could muster.

With that in mind, Madara marched off, leaving his students with doubts of what would happen to Izuna's supposed murderer. The two of them had investigated on their own accounts, even Madara, but they had no solid proof to accuse someone in concrete. Everything was still as dark as the beginning, yet neither of them gave up the search of the individual that dared challenge the Uchiha clan with that assassination.

That night, Madara could barely sleep. He turned in his futon many times. It was the darkest night he'd ever seen; a night as intense as the one there was the day he lost his brother and something told him that another tragedy was going to happen. He ended up staying up upon seeing that flash. The flames could be seen from practically the villages of all the clans. He sat up softly and watched from his window. It seemed to come from the deep of the forest. He hadn't even given it much importance; surely it was a battle between two clans but, he realized something important: it seemed to come from the Uzumaki clan.

"Minato," He whispered in alarm as he got out of his futon to look for his clothes. He needed to see for himself that that boy was alright.

He hurried out towards the stables and mounted Yoarashi, giving him a kick to hurry its pace. They ran towards the fire despite his horse not wanting to go in that direction; it sensed danger, but Madara didn't let him fall back until they reached the esplanade. From atop the hill, he saw houses in flames, corpses on the floor being incinerated but although he looked for Minato with his gaze, he couldn't find him.

"Where are you?" He asked himself, quickly getting off his horse and walking down towards the town in flames to look for him.

It had been a year since he had seen him, but he couldn't and _didn't_ want to forget him. Despite him running amongst the flames of the town, he couldn't manage to find Minato, but he did find a trace of blood that led away from there. He grabbed the reins of his horse and followed the drops... for a moment, he thought he was following Minato, even more as he realized that it led towards the river that delimited the Namikaze clan with the Uchiha—the river where his brother had passed away.

Upon arriving, the area was dark, but the clouds seemed to be in favor of Madara's luck, making way to let the shining moon reflect on the crystalline water. In its reflection, he saw Minato's silhouette sitting on the rock Madara had been sitting on earlier that afternoon. He bled from some superficial wounds but seemed to be fine. He sighed in relief and tried to approach him when the boy's voice stopped him.

"Kill me," He said. "Kill me now." He begged, crying.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm the one you're looking for," Minato cried. "I killed your brother, I killed those men, I'm the one responsible for that fire... please... finish my suffering once and for all."

The tension was noticeable in the ambient. Madara's fists clenched tightly upon hearing that confession and he couldn't help running towards Minato and hit him with all his strength but that boy... didn't seem to even try protecting himself from Madara's blows. All the rage he felt from the death of his brother was reflected in his punches, but despite the pain, Minato only remained still as he awaited death. He owed it to Madara. It was best dying in the hands of the avenger, in the hands of the man he came to love during that competition. It was best like this.


	18. The Killer

Blood ran down his lip in search for his chin before losing itself in between the rocks in the river. He only felt the pain from the blows and, even still, a part of him felt happy for finally leaving this world, for leaving behind all the expectations they had over him, for being a danger to everyone.

A tear slid down from his eyes to his pale cheeks, however, when he waited for Madara's next punch, he realized that it was not coming. Opening his eyes, he watched how Madara took out his katana and raised it with the tip over his neck, determined to do it.

For Minato, this only meant a relief to his entire existence—he wished for him to do it and yet... the blade trembled. Madara's hands trembled against their will, debating between doing what's right, avenging his brother, and the grand love he felt for Minato.

"Do it at once!" Minato shouted but Madara couldn't decide on putting an end to it. With surprise, Minato watched how tears fell from the Uchiha. "Damn it!" He shouted in annoyance. "I killed your brother! I gave him the final blow! I drowned my spade into his stomach until he bled out!" He tried to provoke him once again so he could finish. "I watched him die in my arms, I stole his last breath, I was the one who killed him. Finish me once and for all!"

Madara closed his eyes, holding on tightly to the handle of his katana and raised it to give the final blow, to thrust it into his throat. Minato, seeing how the blade was finally going to put an end to his suffering, closed his eyes waiting for it to end quickly. However, he had to open them again, seeing how he didn't feel the blade.

Minato's eyes opened wide upon seeing how Shisui grabbed Madara's wrist, avoiding him from ending his life.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Shisui asked, surprised and at the same time trying to stop him.

"He killed my brother," Madara said, crying. "He killed him!"

"Stop this, Madara, you're not yourself at this moment!"

"The Hyuuga was right: he's a demon... a demon I fell in love with, but... he was right... I can't leave him loose. As much as it hurts me... I have to put an end to his murders."

"And if it's not him?" Shisui asked.

"Of course it's me!" Minato yelled. "What's wrong, boy? Are you perhaps blind?! Let him kill me!"

"I don't think so," Shisui said. "because Madara is not a killer. You're not like this!" Shisui said towards Madara. "You fell in love with him, don't do this, don't burden yourself with all the guilt! It's not your fault that your brother died, nor that you fell in love with this boy. You don't have to kill him and carry this, too. You won't destroy yourself!"

"Damn it!" Madara cried, separating the katana from Minato's neck.

"What are you doing?!" Minato asked in anger.

"Leave our lands, leave now!" Madara told him.

"Not until you kill me. Why are you not doing it? Don't you want revenge?!" He asked.

"Not like this... not when you're unarmed, not when you can't defend yourself!" Madara yelled at him.

"Don't come to me with that shit... Do it at fucking once!" Minato desperately shouted but Shisui helped Madara get up to get him out of there before the blond provoked him again. "Damned coward!" Minato shouted, letting out the heaviest tears. "Kill me!"

"I don't want to ever see you again," Madara said to him, pained. "Leave far away, kill yourself if that's what you want... but don't ever come near my clan again."

Shisui took Madara away from the river, fading into the thick vegetation. It was at that moment, when Minato was left alone, that he looked at his hands bloodied with his wife's blood. Everyone in the Uzumaki clan had died, including his pregnant wife. He fell onto his knees over the stones wet from the river and cried uncontrollably as he carried that guilt—carrying the death of his wife and his unborn child. He couldn't even tell Madara of the burden he was dealing with, he had just wanted to die but they couldn't even give him that.

He cried kneeling next to the river when a pair of feet appeared by those rocks. Boots black as night itself, pants as equally dark and a large cloak that hid the person's face. As much as Minato wanted to look up, he only saw darkness. He suddenly got up to face the new figure that had appeared in front of him and heard those lips when they moved.

The sound of the water running was the only thing heard, and yet...both their lips moved in that strange conversation that made Minato open his eyes wide in surprise of what that figure was relating to him. That man was confessing things the blond had never been able to imagine even in his worst nightmares, but when he wanted to react, he felt how a blade crossed his abdomen while the man embraced him against his chest.

A whine was heard as Minato spat blood from the blow. He felt his strength fading and he knew... that this was his end despite this man still embracing him and sliding the blade deeper into him. The tears wouldn't stop falling and his legs weakened, falling towards the floor, making that strange figure fall with him to his knees as if he wanted to stay there embracing him until he died.

"Shh," was the last thing he heard from that strange figure as he caressed his hair gently, like someone trying to get a young kid to sleep, like someone trying to tell him that nothing was wrong, but Minato only felt pain from that blade that crossed him.

His eyes were closing as he watched those lips come closer towards him and united with his. He couldn't even respond to anything, the words couldn't come out, his strengths were abandoning him and despite this, he could still gather the last of his chakra into the palm of his hand to tightly grab the other man's wrist, leaving the seal impressed on him; obligating him to let go of the kiss and push Minato far away, looking at the mark he had left on his wrist.

Minato's body fell lifeless into the water, staining it with that tone of red from the blood that continued coming from the deep wound. The cloaked man let out a groan and hid the mark however he could as he cleaned the blade from the blood over Minato's shirt before sheathing it again.

***

Madara walked hotheadedly amongst the forest in direction towards the town. His fists still had blood from the punches he had given Minato. never before had he ever done something like that and he felt guilty for having done something so low to the person he loved, but on the other hand, he felt that he had fallen short with brother's death.

"Damn it," He complained with tears still in his eyes, trying to wipe them with the sleeve of his jacket while Shisui followed close by.

"Stop a second," Shisui told him. "Come on... stop." Finally, he grabbed him by the shoulder, pushing him back to yell at him. "You have to calm down!"

"I can't calm down... not when I have Izuna's killer in front of me and yet... I can't kill him. Why couldn't I do it?!"

"Because you love him," He said. "that boy has your heart, he has everything you are, you can't do it. Do you really think that boy was capable of killing your brother?" Shisui asked.

"I don't know what to think anymore. He confessed to it himself. In fact, he had always felt guilty about kissing me."

"He went out with Izuna," Shisui suddenly said.

"What?" Madara asked once hearing that.

"Izuna made me promise never to tell you, but... I can't leave it like this. Izuna and Minato went out together. I don't think Minato killed him. You've never wondered why Izuna was at the river at those hours of the night? In that storm? He was going to escape with Minato," Shisui said. "They wanted to be together, away from the expectations of their clans, they wanted to escape everything. I think... Minato saw him die. I think that perhaps he got scared upon hearing you and that you'd think he killed him and left. I think Minato was incapable of killing your brother. They were going to leave together, away from Minato's clan, be free. Why kill him when they were going to finally be free?"

"It makes no sense," Madara said, thinking about it. "His guilt wasn't because he killed my brother, it was because he fell in love with the brother of the man he loved, the man he was going to escape with. That's why he cried when he kissed me. He felt bad about falling for me after having lived all of that with my brother," He stopped to think. "But if it's not him... why kill my brother? Perhaps someone found out about his plan, someone from a rival clan or from our own clans, a Namikaze or an Uchiha... Perhaps we've been searching for the killer in the wrong place. Perhaps he was never a participant in the competition, he just wanted... to separate those two, impede Minato from leaving, from Izuna taking him far away."

"The Namikaze clan would've lost a lot if Minato had run away. They wouldn't have competed. Izuna got in the way," Shisui said. "And the Uchiha clan... would've lost Izuna and dishonor would fall upon the clan if they knew that he was a traitor, that he'd desert them to leave with a kid... for love."

"The clan would never forgive that offense," Madara said. "They would've preferred Izuna be dead than see him as a traitor that abandoned the clan. It could be anyone."

"The Namikaze clan was not in the competition, he could've been killed in secret, but on the other hand... the Uchiha clan was present and we were a lot that they could've sneaked around and done the killings."

"The Hyuuga spoke of a demon, but of a demon that was after Minato. He didn't speak of his interior demon. He said that all that approached Minato would die. And if someone is obsessed with Minato? And if they're eliminating everyone who gets close to him with bad intentions?"

"Any ninja could've been the killer," Shisui said. "But they do know that he fell in love with you... you don't have a rival, you'd kill anyone..."

"They couldn't come against me, but... if you're so obsessed with someone that you'd kill anything that comes close to him and can't kill the last suitor... what do you do?"

"Eliminate the base of the problem," Shisui said. "Kill Minato so no one could have him. If I can't against his lover... then I kill him." He whispered.

They both looked back upon that affirmation. It was just a hypothesis and they tried to think it was crazy, that it couldn't be something like that, however, they looked into each other's eyes trying to find each other's doubt—the doubt that would make them think this was all nonsense, but instead, they only managed to get worried even more and start running towards the river to confirm what was true and if it was only a crazy thought.

Once arriving at the river, neither saw anything strange. Madara sighed, almost calming himself that his mind had played him a bad joke, a bad theory over what was happening. He lowered his head with a slight smile until he opened his eyes, seeing red water bump against his boot, exactly the same as the time he found his brother.

"We should leave," Shisui said without having realized it yet, but when he was about to leave, Madara grabbed the adolescent's arm. Shisui, upon seeing Madara's eyes fixed on his boot submerged in water, also looked at the water and realized it was red.

The two looked up, searching the river and began running, trying to find out where the blood was coming from. Perhaps the body had fallen in between the rocks and couldn't see it from where they were.

Desperation came to Madara, who incessantly searched until it appeared before his eyes hidden behind some rocks—the reflection of the boy's blond hair. He ran towards him, lifting the body from the cold waters to drag him out onto the shore before he got hypothermia. Even still, he didn't seem to be breathing.

Shisui, seeing him by the shore, ran over to help him, trying to cover the wound on his stomach while Madara gave him mouth to mouth. He managed to get him to breathe but his pulse was fading and the cold wasn't helping in keeping him alive.

"Fuck," Madara expressed, taking his jacket off to place it over him. "We're losing him," He said, recalling the time he had his brother in the same situation.

"I'm not a medic," Shisui said. "but... the Yamanaka's village isn't far, perhaps they can help."

"They don't get along with us," Madara said.

"We have to try it or he'll die. He's barely alive because of that strange chakra in his interior."

"The demon," Madara whispered. "The demon is connected to him, if Minato dies, he dies as well. He must be trying to keep him alive, even still..."

"He's weak, both of them are. If we don't hurry..."

"Alright, let's go to the Yamanaka."

Upon trying to lift Minato's body in his arms, Madara noticed the strange seal on the palm of the blond's hand. This didn't go by unnoticed to Shisui. It was Madara who examined the hand, faintly smiling.

"He's marked him." He said.

"What?"

"He's marked the killer, he placed a seal on him to identify him with. We'll know who it is if we find the seal."

"This boy never fails to surprise me," Shisui whispered. "But we have to move now, Madara... we're losing him."


	19. Seals

Night had fallen but two ninja continued running amongst the trees in direction towards the hidden village of the Yamanaka. Very few people knew of its exact location, however, both had activated their Sharingan to discover their illusionary secrets and managed to find it.

Madara lowered his gaze for a second towards Minato. He had been very cruel to him that day; he had hurt him but both of them had thought he really was the killer. Not even Minato was conscious that he wasn't guilty of everything that had happened. That thought made Madara hug Minato's body closer to his. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if the other died in his arms, not after the last words he'd said to him.

"Come on... hold on much longer," Madara whispered, joining his forehead to an inconscoious Minato's.

"How's he doing?" Shisui asked, seeing Madara so affected.

"Not well. His breathing is ragged and his pulse is much weaker as time goes by. He's loosing so much blood. He shouldn't even be alive."

"Let's hurry; we shouldn't be too far from the village."

"It should be around here, let's keep our eyes open."

Minato's blood tainted Madara's dark gloves. Upon seeing this, he could only hurry his pace following his partner. He didn't want to think of the possibility of loosing him, but he coudn't help thinking about it, either. He just wanted to arrive at the village and try to convince the Yamanaka to help the boy.

After five minutes in the same direction, both had finally discovered the illusion the Yamanka clan maintained. Thanks to their Sharingan, they dispelled it and they headed towards the interior of a clan that looked at them with fear and doubts. They weren't surprised by their reactions; they knew that the Uchiha clan was never welcomed anywhere. The whispers were made present instantly, some asking what two Uchiha could want in their village and others observing the unconscious blond boy they had in their grasp.

"We want to speak to the leader of the clan," Madara specified.

The murmurs and gossip increased upon hearing that. The people doubted on whether or not to point them in direction to their clan's leader, but finally, no one had to say anything seeing as she appeared in front of the two boys, coming out from a cabin.

"I'm the leader of the clan," Tsunade exclaimed. "but the Uchiha are not welcome here. Go back to where you came from."

"We'll leave," Madara said. "but he stays."

Tsunade's eyes fixed themselves on the blond boy Madara carried in his arms. She knew him; she knew very well who this boy was. But as much as she wanted to investigate the situation, she couldn't.

"Save him and we'll leave," Madara insisted. "You have my word."

"Why would I help the Uchiha?"

"Because I'm not the one that needs help, but a Namikaze. I beg you—I'll kneel if you want me to—but save him."

Tsunade clicked her tongue knowing she'd never hear an Uchiha beg for anyone or anything ever again. She had never trusted the Uchiha, but it was true that she couldn't let a Namikaze die.

"Take him inside, quick," She finally said, opening the door to her house.

Shisui observed Madara in a strange way although his partner understood it perfectly. Neither of the two were confident on this, but they had no other choice but to enter if they wanted to save Minato. Madara, with his heart in pieces, entered carrying a Minato that had stopped breathing a few seconds ago.

"Leave him there. I have to treat his wound or he'll bleed out in seconds."

Madara left him on the futon, watching how Tsunade tried to reanimate the boy who was dying quickly. With every try, Madara tensed and begged for Minato to return to life. Luckily, he did after a few seconds.

Tsunade's medics and helpers responded immediately, trying to save Minato from death despite Madara still being unable to understand why they were helping him— the Yamanaka hated the Uchiha.

"Step outside, I'll call you when I'm able to stabilize him," Tsunade said towards both Uchiha.

Madara's first reaction was to not move; he didn't want to leave and lose sight of the boy but once Shisui placed a hand over the man's shoulder, he was able to help him make the decision.

"Come, we'll only be a burden here. He'll be in good hands. The Yamanaka don't have anything against the Namikaze so let's leave them to do their job."

"Alright," Madara accepted.

The wait was long and torturous for both. Everyone in the village observed them carefully, scared to get near them. [The Uchihas] didn't want to step too far away from the house, but they knew they'd have to search for somewhere to rest that night as clouds threatened a storm and thunder could be heard in the distance.

They spent hours waiting, getting desperate at the uncertainty. Madara's fingers intertwined with each other, tightening his knuckles. A wooden bowl with warm miso soup appeared in his field of vision. Tsunade took the opportunity to sit by their side on the porch, watching the rain as it began falling.

"How is he?" Madara questioned.

"Alive... for now," Tsunade confirmed. "I won't lie to you... anyone else in his state would've been dead already... He's lucky to have that demon inside him, it's keeping him alive but, even so... he's in critical state. I've never seen anyone come out alive with a wound like that."

"I suppose I should be thankful, then, for that demon inside him."

"Don't be mistaken... that demon is in no way an ally." Tsunade told him. "It's only selfish. Minato created a complex seal—he's a smart kid and wouldn't let the demon out, ever."

"I know he's not the one who killed those people, at least I know now."

"That seal he created lets the demon pass his chakra to Minato, but it does not allow him to possess the vessel. That demon is locked away and yet... despite the fact that it would never help the boy, it's doing it simply because Minato tied the seal to his life. If Minato dies, the demon dies. It will never be his ally, it's just trying to keep him alive to keep itself alive. If it had escaped and left him to die... it would've done it."

"I don't care much about its motives as long as he keeps him alive," Madara said. "The one thing I don't quite understand... is why you chose to help us. I know you hate us."

"We hate you for what you are," Tsunade said. "I've witnessed the love the Uchiha are capable of giving, seen them kill for those loves and seen them destroy everything in their way when losing said loves. Your immense love becomes a deadly hatred for everyone. I don't trust your love because I know it'll turn to hate and you'll destroy everything in your path, however, it's not that boy's fault; he helped us. Last year, the feudal lord wanted to move the village, separate us from our lands and take possession of them to make land for crops. Minato, as a member of the council, advised him to drop it and leave us here. We owe it to him."

Madara seemed to ponder on the woman's words, everything she said about the Uchiha, about the Namikaze, and everything seemed to make sense.

"It's an Uchiha," Madara said towards Shisui and Tsunade. "The demon that's killing everyone is an Uchiha."

"How can you be so sure?" Shisui asked in surprise.

"From what she's just said... we have an intense love that upon losing it becomes hate. Look at it closely: they killed Izuna and everything that got near Minato... they did it because the killer was losing the love of his life, they were taking [Minato] from him. That love forged his hate towards everyone else and when he couldn't keep on killing... his hate turned towards Minato. He's an Uchiha."

"It could be anyone," Shisui said.

"Not just anyone... it's someone who knows Minato well, someone who knew of the relationship between my brother and him... and he's marked. Minato marked him."

"Not many were aware of the relationship your brother had with Minato," Shisui said. "Even so... I'm convinced that if we say Minato's alive... the killer will show himself. Minato has seen him, and if he wakes up, he'll give us a name. It's a risk for [the killer]. Now he has to finish what he started and will return for Minato, he'll come back to kill him."

"I'm convinced of it... but I'll be waiting for him. This time I'll know their intentions and won't let them get to him."

"The next few hours will be critical for Minato. Take the chance to find his killer beforehand. Now that you know they're marked, find them." Tsunade said.

Someone's quick footsteps were heard amongst the puddles on the main road of the village followed by a shouting calling for Tsunade. A girl with blonde hair searched with urgency and concern.

"What's going on, Ino?" The woman asked, getting up from her seat.

"The Namikaze—another crisis."

Tsunade didn't even wait to see the reaction of the other Uchiha upon the young one's words; she ran towards the cabin once more and walked in to see how the boy's body convulsed as if entering another cardiac arrest. Madara also ran and despite a few guards trying to stop him at the door, he gave them a faint push and entered to check on Minato.

He seemed to be conscious, at least, he had his eyes open. He clicked his tongue, frustrated at the situation, knowing they were losing him, knowing that if it weren't for that demon keeping him alive... he would've been dead some time ago.

"Get away from here," Tsunade said, trying to get him out.

"It'll only be a second, I need him to respond to something," Madara told her.

"He can't respond to you, he's unconscious."

"He probably won't, but his brain still functions. I can enter it and see what the last thing he saw was. I need it to tell me who his killer was," He said, annoyed, and despite Tsunade trying to keep him away, Madara got closer to Minato, turning on his Sharingan and looking him fixedly in the eyes to access his memories.

Minato's body stopped convulsing for a few seconds in front of the medics' expectations. His heart rate decreased and Tsunade supposed that it was thanks to Madara being in his mind, that he was successful in eliminating part of his pain and memories.

When Madara opened his eyes, he found himself in that river. It was becoming dark and Minato cried with rage on his knees amongst the rocks. [Madara] wanted to approach him and comfort him but knew that it was only just a memory in [Minato's] mind, something he had already lived and passed; he couldn't do anything for him, and yet... he gave the first step to approach when he saw that hidden silhouette under a large, black cape that watched Minato. He was too far away to hear the conversation, so he approached them both.

He placed his hand on the individual's hood to take it off, but just like a hologram, his hand passed through the figure. It was just a memory; he couldn't touch them, only observe what had happened. He looked at the man's lips when they began moving.

"Come with me, Minato, we can be together," He heard the man pronounce.

"It's you... you killed all those people."

"For you, Minato," The figure smiled. "To keep you safe. Let's run away together. We can be happy."

"No..." Minato had said. "I'll never be happy with someone like you. You killed Izuna and all those people, my wife... my son—you killed them all!"

"Decide well, boy... it's your last chance."

"You're going to kill me, too?" He said, getting up from the ground to look at him directly.

"You leave me no other option, I'll never be able to defeat Madara," He whispered, pushing the katana further into [Minato's] abdomen.

Minato tried speaking, tried to reach for the kunai on his back, but it was impossible. However... Madara watched in silence how he placed the seal on the individual's wrist and the other, after the last kiss, let go of him, leaving him to fall in the cold water.

He got out of that memory with effort and confusion, his body falling to the floor as he let go of Minato's shoulders, his body convulsing again. Tsunade ordered her men to escort Madara out immediately; she couldn't take care of Minato with that man there doing his thing.


	20. The mystery.

Shisui watched as Madara quickly and silently walked out of the cabin. He seemed upset and the only thing he could do was get up upon seeing the other walk up to him.

"Show me your wrists," Madara demanded.

"What? My wrists? Why?"

"Do it!" He shouted.

Shisui pulled his sleeves up immediately, giving sight to the bandages around his wrists. From the look Madara gave him, he didn't seem to like that but said nothing. He simply started undoing the bandages to see what was under them despite Shisui still not understanding what was going on.

"Happy?" Shisui asked, seeing how Madara turned the boy's wrists over and over as if trying to see something that wasn't there. "Can I know what you're looking for?"

"Minato's mark."

"And you think I'm going to have it? I was by your side the entire time," He said.

"It's true... I'm sorry... but knowing he's an Uchiha irritates me. It's simply inadmissible that one of ours could go so far for an obsession."

"I think... we should rest for today. You stay here and I'll return to the clan. Someone should tell them what's happened. If news of Minato still being alive spreads throughout the clan, the killer would have to come to finish his job and you'll be here waiting for him."

"I won't let him get near him," Madara said, convinced of it. "Return to the clan and make sure everyone knows that Minato is alive still—make sure to tell them... that he saw his assassin. That way he'll have to come to finish what he started."

***

Two days had passed since then—two eternal days where it seemed that Minato was recovering before suffering another crisis. The demon would take long to heal the wound but it seemed that the attacks were less frequent. Even still, Tsunade wouldn't [take her eyes off that boy] and administered enough sedatives to keep him asleep.

Those two days... had been like a witch hunt. Shisui and Madara had tried to find the assassin's mark—the mark that Minato had left behind but they had realized that almost all the Uchiha had their wrists bandaged. They had to resort to forcing the situation a million different ways for them to undo their bandages—even going as far as to throwing tea on them if it was necessary and in the end, they were still searching. Obito, noticing how both were dropping drinks everywhere and checking wrists, had been surprised and ended up asking about it. After voluntarily showing his wrists to both of them, they had no choice but to sigh and give him the information so he'd help them look for the loose assassin in their clan.

Obito took advantage of Madara's silence to sit next to him. Both looked out into the horizon in the clan they couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in. The Yamanaka wouldn't stop looking at the Uchiha who lately wandered around in their village.

"They don't want us here," Obito whispered, seeing how nervous everyone was in the clan.

"I know. As soon as Minato recovers, I'll take him to his clan and we'll leave the Yamanaka to resume their lives. They won't have to put up with us anymore."

"And what'll happen to the killer? If you don't find him, he'll continue killing people for that kid."

"I know," Madara told him.

"Do you have any other clue as to whom it could be?"

"Not yet," Madara whispered as he brought his hands up to cover his mouth. He seemed to be in thought and even to Obito, this meant he knew more than he was saying—or at least... he was thinking of something.

"Madara," Both heard a man pronounce his name. "We need you in the meeting."

"I can't go, father," Madara said with nothing more.

"It's urgent and that boy's state isn't going to change from one day to another so you better come to this meeting. The Namikaze are none of our problems but you, as the future leader of this clan, are going to have to take care of your clan. Do not disappoint," His father insisted with a hard gaze.

"Go," Obito said. "I'll stay and keep watch. I don't think Shisui will take long to come back."

"Alright."

Madara got up to assist the important meeting his father talked about. Obito simply sighed and looked up at the clouds that began covering the beautiful moon that dominated the night's sky. It wasn't a good sign and even less upon seeing it start to redden.

Shisui looked at the moon from the second row of forest trees. Crouched amongst their luxuriance, he watched Madara come towards him and sit by his side. Madara's father didn't take long to join them with an angry face.

"I hope you're not confused," He whispered.

"Neither do we," Madara said, looking towards Obito and the cabin where Minato was.

"It's him," Shisui said, very sure of himself.

"You both said he had no mark," Madara's father confirmed, looking towards Obito.

"For an Uchiha, hiding something you know others are looking for is easy. He can create an illusion or even learn some trick to hide the mark, but I'm sure... it's him. Only two people knew of the relationship between Izuna and Minato and I didn't say anything." Shisui confirmed.

"If you're mistaken..."

"If an Uchiha is guilty, the entirety of the Uchiha law will fall upon him. I won't let my brother's death go unpunished, much less if it's one of us," Madara said with seriousness. "I'll only attack when I confirm it, that's why we're here. He thinks we're in a meeting... he doesn't know we're watching him. It's the best chance for him to finish what he started."

Madara's father observed Madara's focus, as well as Shisui's—both wouldn't stop watching Obito and his movements. To Madara, that moon had never meant anything good; it only turned such color when a tragedy occurred or would happen shortly.

Time passed slow and quietly. The clouds covered the moon, indicating a storm brewing. Everyone in the clan had taken refuge in their houses and only the cabin where Minato resided in had the lights on. Tsunade would visit from time to time, worried about his continuous breakdowns. Despite the rain falling and lightning illuminating the sky, the three Uchiha remained in their posts watching how Obito still sat there on a bench without making a single gesture. For a moment, everyone began doubting if he was really innocent and were just misinterpreting things. It was possible that the actual killer already knew of their setup or plans, that he was possibly using Obito's figure for his own plans and yet, Shisui was still fixed on and convinced that it had to be his partner despite the faint doubt that overwhelmed him and the fear of being mistaken.

"It has to be him," Shisui said.

"Calm down," Madara murmured.

"It's five in the morning. He should do it quickly before you get back from your supposed meeting."

"Maybe he's indecisive. Maybe he thinks he can still save him and be with him. Let's give him more time."

"He's awake!" Tsunade's shout was heard as she ran out of the cabin, something that caught Obito and the three hidden Uchiha's attention. "Where is Madara?" She asked upon seeing Obito.

"In an important meeting. He won't take long."

"I should inform him."

"You can go tell him if you want," Obito commented. "I'll stay here and keep watch. That way I can tell you or one of your helpers if he suffers any other attacks."

"Alright," Tsunade said in the end despite not being all too trusting of an Uchiha. "I'll be back quickly."

Tsunade walked out of the village in light pace although upon entering the forest, the three Uchihas ambushed her to separate her from the cabin. They knew that now would be the best time for Obito if he really wanted to end things because a woken Minato... would decide if he would reveal who was the killer or not. Tsunade was surprised to see them there but kept silent as she listened to their plan on identifying the killer.

"He's moving," Shisui said, seeing how Obito got up and walked into the cabin where Minato was.

"I'm going," Madara said.

"Make sure he doesn't see you."

"I'll create an illusion. He won't even know I'm there," He affirmed.

"Alright."

***

Obito walked into the room hoping to find himself with a somewhat better Minato compared to the other times but, instead, he watched quietly how that boy continued breathing with difficulty, his torso exposed and bandaged but with his eyes open despite the mask they'd put on him to help him breathe better. He didn't think the other could be able to talk at that moment and surely he wouldn't be able to for a few days but he couldn't risk it and give him more time there. He had hoped all along that he die in one of his crises or even re-evaluate his decision. Nothing would make him happier than to be with Minato but he knew how thick-headed and stubborn Minato was—how in love he was with Madara.

"Why do you make this difficult, boy?" Obito asked in a whisper, appearing before Minato's sight. "It was very easy for us to be together, none of this should've happened, but here you are... here I am—doing what I've never wished to do." He smiled sweetly, caressing Minato's hair. "I'm sorry, boy... we'll see each other in another life."

Obito unsheathed his katana, raising it with his two hands over Minato's body but before he the blade could impale him, someone stopped him from giving the blow. He opened his eyes in surprise to find Madara in front of him—a seriousness in his eyes and a willingness to do anything. Perhaps he could've come up with an excuse... but nothing would save him from this; Madara wouldn't believe anything after witnessing such scene.

"Shisui was right: only you knew that Izuna and Minato were together. You were his student, how could you do something like this to him?! I couldn't understand how he hadn't defended himself against his aggressor, how my brother had easily fallen, but now I understand. He never expected that his own student would attack him. You caught him by surprise, but that trick won't work on me."

Minato tried to raise his hand to reach Madara's jacket, but the other only gave him a look as if trying to calm him, asking him to wait. Sweetly, he grabbed his hand and after a soft caress of his fingers against the other's palms, he let the hand rest above the sheets, looking back at a frustrated Obito.

"Don't touch him!" Obito angrily shouted.

"You are going to stop me?" Madara smirked. "Get used to it, this boy will never love you and much less after knowing everything you've done to him."

"You leave me no other option than to change plans," Obito smiled. "I can't return to the clan, everyone knows who I am, and I no longer have to kill him. I'll kill you and then take Minato very far away."

"You're going to kidnap him?" Madara smiled. "Leave him chained up and locked up forever somewhere just as long as he's with you?"

"If that's how I manage to be with him, then fine by me. It could've been different if he had accepted voluntarily, but I also don't dislike the idea of doing things the hard way so long as he's by my side."

"It'll always be the hard way with him and you know that. He'll always try to escape your side even if you kill me. The bad thing about your plan, though... is that it has a great flaw. To take him, you have to kill me because you won't be taking or doing anything to him so long as I'm here," Madara threatened.

"Let's go outside then, and fix this," Obito challenged with a smirk.

"After you."

Obito was the first to teleport out of the cabin but Madara waited a second before doing so. He wanted to see those blue eyes again, he wanted to apologize to him for his behaviour. He was almost sure that he'd win this fight but, just in case anything happened, he preferred to tie up loose ends with the boy.

"In the end, it wasn't you," Madara smiled. "I know you thought you were the killer but no; you've created a marvelous seal. That demon may be inside you but it won't escape, it'll never control you. I'm sorry for believing you that day, I didn't know you loved my brother and I know the guilt you carry for having fallen for me. I know you feel as though you've betrayed Izuna but I want you to know... that that's not true. My brother has died—it hurts us both— but I know he wouldn't want to see you alone. He'd prefer seeing you happy by my side than to see you sad the rest of your life. So stop feeling guilty about this love and when I return... we'll fix our clans if you manage to forgive me for the damage I've done to you. I [regret] having told you that I never wanted to see you again because you're the one that moves me, you're the reason my heart beats, and that's why I'm going to fix this right now. I'll return," Madara told him, giving him a kiss on the forehead. "I'll be back to you, I promise."

Without looking back, Madara got out of there to follow Obito towards a more calmer zone, far from Minato and the chance of wounding him in their battle as he was convinced [Obito] would be a tough opponent, but he would be one, too. When [the time comes] and his father dies, he would become the leader of the clan and these actions would not be permitted, ever—he was going to make that clear from the start. Then he'd think about how to fix the situation with Minato and how he'd [come about] convincing his clan to have him as his husband, something he didn't think would be easy but he'd tackle these problems one by one. What was important now... was to end with the massacres of Obito Uchiha.

**_Epilogue:_ **

A blonde girl walked along the long and dark hallway of the Uchiha clan. Never in her life had she thought she'd end up here, in the home of the future leader of the most prestigious, most feared clan in the area and yet, she walked with barely any fear knowing that she was part of an important plan, feeling that—despite no one wanting her the way she wished to be wanted—she was fortunate to have been chosen.

She stood on the other side of the door listening to the chuckles that were heard from behind the door, those masculine voices and their moans. Perhaps the rest of the clans would never understand this—not even she herself knew why she had accepted a situation like this—but she would not regret being of help to her clan as much as to this boy who had managed to bring the Namikaze back from ashes. They spoke of him as a hero, [but surely] he wouldn't become the [next] leader to his clan because [he did not have the] hereditary blood; instead, he would be a part of leadership within the Uchiha clan—the loyal counselor to the future leader, legal husband in such situation.

She knocked on the door gently and the laughs [from within] stopped for a second to let her in. Her fine linen dress moved elegantly with the breeze coming in from the open window in the room.

"May I?" The girl asked with a great blush on her cheeks.

"Of course, we were expecting you," Madara said, moving towards the end of the bed and kneeling there to take her hand.

The girl walked towards him and placed her hand over Madara's, who held onto it instantly and invited her to climb onto the bed with them. She hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she too placed her knees on the mattress and sat at his side.

"Are you sure of this?" Madara asked. "You don't have to do it if you don't want to."

"I want to," She assured him, this time looking at Minato Namikaze laying on the other side of the bed. "If this is the only way for you two to be together, I want to."

"Don't feel obligated to," Madara told her this time. "I know how it feels to have the weight of the entire clan on your shoulders and it's a heavy burden for anyone."

"I do this voluntarily," She smiled. "You saved our clan, saved us all from the looting, from the insults of other clans. You carried all that weight and the only thing you want is to be with him," She said, looking at Madara. "They wouldn't even give you that because it wouldn't give you heirs. I'll give them to you; I'll give you the descendants they're looking for so you can be by Madara's side."

Madara let out a sigh. He hadn't even considered that option when they had said yes; he hadn't thought about it. All he had in mind was that he wanted to be with Minato no matter the price and this... this was the price. Both their families demanded legitimate heirs to each clan, so both of them had to look for a woman from their clan to have the descendants they could not have together.

Even so, despite being allowed to marry and having to let both women live in their house—being the mothers of their children—knowing that they could be together was enough for them, but for some reason, Minato still trembled slightly.

"Calm down," Madara smiled at him. "I promised you: I'll always stay by your side. I won't leave you alone."

"It's just... I feel as though I'm betraying everyone," Minato said. "Her because I'm taking away her chances of someone loving her, you for having to have sex with her, for having a child with her, and to your Uchiha woman who'll also have to do this with you... I... I feel strange."

"I'm alright with this," The girl said, flushed. "I promise. It's just one son and I'll be able to see him whenever I want; I'll be able to marry after this, and besides... they've just asked for one."

"See?" Madara smiled. "She's fine and you won't have to worry about me, I'll love that child as if it were ours. They won't separate him from you nor from his mother, you'll live in the same clan, his house is just next door. I know it's weird but I promised to always be by your side. Although you'll be in bed with her tonight or however many nights it takes to get her pregnant, I'll be here in the same bed with you. Take this as a new experience. When all of this is over, we'll return to being just you and me."

"I don't know if I can share you with another person," Minato said.

"You can, I can assure you of that, because it's something that'll pass and because you know that I love only you. All this will pass and we'll be back to being together, you and I alone. Enjoy this for today and when tomorrow comes and the Uchiha girl is here, you'll be by my side. I can share you if I know that in the end... the reward will be that we can be together."

"Yeah... I think I understand," Minato smiled with a blush. "If all goes well... it'll just be one time."

"I love you," Madara whispered before kissing his lips. "Now, let's get this done and over with."

Minato sat up a bit on the mattress kissing Madara passionately while the girl observed them without knowing exactly what to do being between them.

"I'll start until you feel more comfortable," Madara said towards Minato. "But she's a Namikaze... it'll be you who'll have to finish this."

"I know. One last sacrifice," Minato smiled. "A last one for you, for us."

"Yes, Minato, our clans no longer matter... just us. This is our last sacrifice."

Just as Madara had said, it was he who, softly and with much respect, laid the girl out in between them to begin caressing her despite not wanting to let go of Minato's lips. He could've just left him alone so that way he could be a lot more relaxed, but neither of them wanted to really do that. Both had preferred to be together in all their relations, even if they had to incorporate someone else into them. They wouldn't separate from each other, or that's what they had promised. They knew this was ludicrous, that no other clan except theirs would've accepted this, but they'd have their heirs and finally... they would be together without complications.

Madara used his free hand, the one he wasn't using to prepare the girl, to take it over towards Minato's member, hearing the gasp of pleasure he let out hidden amongst the gasps the girl was also trying to keep hidden.

Minato's hands, still trembling and indecisive from the entire situation, went first towards his husband's torso. He could see the ring on his finger; that ring that indicated they were both one for the other thanks to their clans that had accepted so long as... they accepted this strange situation. Observing the ring, it was then that he decided to take his other hand towards the girl's chest, tracing his hand from her bellybutton towards her breasts.

Madara, seeing how Minato began acting towards whom would be his partner tonight, stopped touching the woman and placed his hand over Minato's on her chest while the other let go of his member to place it behind his husband's hair and force him to deepen the kiss.

"Calm down," He whispered once more. "You're doing well. Tonight... we'll be just you and me."

"I know," Minato smiled. "I'm [looking forward to it]."

"Me too."

Both tried to concentrate on the other without forgetting about the woman. She was doing them a big favor; she didn't have to accept such situation and yet, she had done it for them. During the next few minutes—and despite the woman being embarrassed to get in between them—she ended up participating to excite them both. Everyone there was conscious of the fact that they wanted to finish this as fast as possible as it was just an obligation. As soon as Minato felt his fingers wet in the woman's entrance, he kissed Madara and whispered onto his lips:

"I'm going to do it."

"Alright," Madara cheered him on. "Let me help you a bit."

Minato positioned himself better and with his hand guiding himself, he introduced his member into the girl's entrance. He closed his eyes and thought of Madara—as if he were that person. He didn't stop until being entirely inside her but didn't move until he felt he could start without hurting her. He had barely started moving a few seconds when he felt Madara's hands on his ass, spreading his cheeks and positioning him in such a way that he could penetrate him. The blush was made present on both Minato and on the girl as she watched the situation play out.

"Relax and enjoy," Madara smiled. "Just... concentrate on cumming."

"Alright," Minato replied with a smile.

Madara entered him gently, making way until he could no more and letting himself be invaded by the moan Minato let out as he felt pressure on both sides—so much so from his member being inside the woman as well as the pressure Madara's dick applied inside him.

"I'm going to move," Madara smirked, getting Minato's moans to come out as soon as he felt the movement.

Minato tried to move as he tried to align himself with his husband's movements. Never before had he tried anything like this and surely this was also something new to Madara, but he couldn't deny that the pleasure he felt was immense. Perhaps not everything about this experience was bad.

"Fuck," Minato let out on more than a few occasions when he felt pleasure.

His forehead fell upon the woman's clavicle as she was under him while Madara continued moving as fast as he could. His thighs were trembling and despite him trying to maintain that same rhythm on the woman under him, it was sometimes impossible and he had to stop so Madara could continue. The three's moans were heard within the room and in a few seconds, Minato was the first to release inside the woman who'd have to give him a Namikaze heir.

Madara had immediately sensed when his husband had released as his body had suddenly relaxed. His breathing was ragged as he tried to recover as well as the girl, but [Madara] continued a bit more looking for his own pleasure. Once finished, they guided the girl to where she could shower while they waited patiently on the bed for her to finish.

"You never told me what happened during the battle," Minato stressed as he caressed his fingers over Madara's chest and placed his head on his husband's shoulder.

"There's not much to tell," Madara simply said. "You don't have to worry about him anymore. He won't bother you and that's the only thing you should know." He smiled.

**_ Flashback _ **

_Rain fell over both ninjas' bodies. Madara stood there, observing the small stream take the blood of whom had been the grandest assassin of his clan. He didn't feel all too happy having to eliminate one of his own, but he knew it was necessary. He looked to the sky letting the raindrops impregnate his bloodied face and take with it the blood he had shed._

_His arm was wounded and part of his body had cuts and burns from the intensity of the battle, but his pain didn't matter much as he only focused on the relief he felt to know that Minato would be alive and well from the moment on. Obito lay dead at his feet._

_He looked around and took one of the flowers that typically grew in the Uchiha clan, the orchid—a flower that the emperor had chosen as his emblem but voluntarily grew in the Uchiha clan. He took a flower and threw it over the bloodied body of Obito Uchiha._

_"For Izuna," Madara whispered, letting the flower fall over him. "I hope you find the peace you could not have in life."_

_He sheathed his katana, taking in one last look at the body that would soon receive a funeral from part of the clan. He didn't even want to carry the body; instead, he'd let one of his own take care of Obito. He was going to leave when he saw Minato standing behind him leaning against the trunk of a tree and as weak as he had been moments before._

_"Hey... what are you doing here? You're not supposed to be moving," Madara told him, walking towards him and taking him under his arms._

_"I wanted... I wanted to know if you were safe."_

_"I'm fine," He assured with a smile. "But you're not, you should rest. I thought you wouldn't speak for days."_

_"The demon is healing me, I can move... more or less, and I've prioritized the healing of my throat so I could tell you everything. I wanted to tell you who the killer was, although I've arrived late."_

_"You've already told me, Minato," Madara smiled. "You marked him and you indicated which path to take. You're still weak, though."_

_"But I wanted to help you if you had any problems."_

_"And I appreciate it, but this was my battle, Minato. I'm sorry for everything my clan's made you go through and I'd understand if you never wanted to come to a clan like this."_

_"I want to be with you," He told him. "But our clans..."_

_"I'll take care of looking for a solution to get their heirs, but I'm marrying you even if it means I have to run away. I don't think my father would prefer losing the future leader of the clan than to accept you. There'll be a solution."_

_"I... lost Kushina and... I lost... I lost my son," Minato whispered, shedding the first tears._

_"I know, I saw it in your memories. It won't happen again. I won't let you go through something like that again, no one will ever hurt you again, not you nor who matters to you. Even if I have to annihilate someone from my clan."_

_"I didn't know it was Obito, I thought..."_

_"You believed it was you because of the demon, but that's not true. You've created an amazing seal that contains him to perfection. I've taken care of Obito; he won't bother you again. From now on, only you and I matter; I'll fight for you."_

_"I will also fight for you," Minato whispered. "We'll be together, I know we'll find a solution to do so."_

_"Of course there will," Madara stressed. "Of course we'll find it, now come, I'll take you back to the Yamanaka clan. You shouldn't be under the rain in these conditions, you're still weak. I don't want you getting sick now that you're recovering."_

_"I'm sorry about your brother, I... loved him."_

_"I know, and I know he loved you. He was willing to leave everything for you but that shouldn't make you feel guilty. You have every right to fall in love again."_

_"But you're his brother..."_

_"Who better than to care and protect you? The two of us love you, I'll protect you and I'll love you for me and for him, I assure you."_

_"You always sound so romantic," Minato blushed._

_"Just with you," Madara smiled. "Only with you can I be like this. You take out the best in people."_

_The two merged for an intense kiss under the rain, gracing and playing with their tongues as Minato caressed Madara's wet hair and the other still held on to him, set on taking him back to Tsunade. Both knew that the fight was not over as now there was the worst of all things to deal with: to convince their clans of their intentions of being together, to marry, but at least... the two of them were sure and convinced that they weren't thinking of separating at all and that this problem, they'd face together._

**_ Fin. _ **


End file.
